Beyond the controversy: Instructional scaffolds to promote critical evaluation and understanding of Earth science
The Model-Evidence Link (MEL) diagram activities are scaffolds that facilitate students’ weighing and coordinating of the connection between evidence and models. MELs help students learn about fundamental Earth and space science content that underlies socioscientific, complex, and abstract issues. Our project team has been developing and testing four MELs about socio-scientific issues (climate change, wetlands and land use, fracking and earthquakes) and abstract ideas (formation of Earth’s Moon) for use in high school classrooms.
Our project team has been developing and testing four MELs about socio-scientific issues (climate change, wetlands and land use, fracking and earthquakes) and abstract ideas (formation of Earth’s Moon) for use in high school classrooms.