The materials on the site are developed using a conceptual change framework. This means that students revise their explanations for increasingly powerful ones, just as scientists do when new evidence comes to light. Assessment focuses on where students are in the journey towards deeper understanding—not on one right answer. Students typically work through a number of models before reaching one that has the most explanatory power for their level. For instance, in learning about density, students often go through a series of models beginning with a notion of something being heavy or light for its size, to a sense of material kind, to a model that includes particles, to a model that includes particles per a given amount of space.
With an increase in conceptual
understanding, the models are
more complex.
understanding, the models are
more complex.
