VModel: A Visual Qualitative Modeling Environment for Middle-school Students

Learning how to create, test, and revise models is a central skill in scientific reasoning. We argue that qualitative modeling provides an appropriate level of representation for helping middle-school students learn to become modelers. We describe Vmodel, a system we have created that uses visual representations and that enables middle-school students to create qualitative models. We discuss the design of the visual representation language, how Vmodel works, and evidence from school studies that indicate it is successful in helping students.