Model, Assess, Repeat

When teachers first wrap their heads around scientific modeling, it can be a bit tricky to distinguish scientific models from diagrams and threedimensional models. If a fifth grader draws and labels a food web, it's a model. Right? Not necessarily. According to the Framework, students' scientific models are intended to represent their current understanding of a system (or parts of a system) under study, to aid in the development of questions and explanations, and to communicate ideas to others. After exploring digital models for a couple of years with my third graders, I began to wonder how I should assess and grade them. A shift of teaching has teachers assessing students through science and engineering practices (SEP) and crosscutting concepts (CCC), but it is not always clear how to do so. My first attempt at creating rubrics only included the science concepts from the unit.