Handouts are available on the bottom of this post in the Resources section.

Big Idea

Not all models need to be physical – food webs and nutrient/water cycles are conceptual, pen-and-paper models of what’s happening. But, all good models have the same qualities I call RPMs: they’re representative, predictive, and modifiable. For example, in a food wool, which represents relationships between plants and animals, predator and prey, if we were to remove one, we could predict what would happen to the others.

A decision tree is a simple way to create a conceptual model. What makes it so simple is that it uses yes and no questions to come to an answer to a larger question. I’m using decision trees to teach and practice model making.

Instructions

Step 1: Give students an overarching question to answer.

Step 2: Have students develop Yes or No questions that will lead to an answer.

NOTE: there can be more than 2 answers. Also, one response may lead to more questions which, eventually, will get to the answer.

Resources

Handout(s): Handout – Decision Trees 1 Model For Any Science Lesson

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