The modelling tool SimSketch1 has been developed to stimulate students' thinking in terms of models. In SimSketch, students can create drawings of natural systems and name the relevant elements therein. They can assign behaviours to the objects in the drawing by affixing a ‘behaviour sticker’. This turns the drawing into a simulation.
This can for instance be applied to the modelling of the solar system. Students draw the sun, planets and the moon, and they specify that the planets move around the sun and the moon around the earth. As soon as the students press ‘play’, the planets start to move and the orbit of the moon becomes visible as a kind of cycloid. Students can do all sorts of investigations, such as exploring why Mars sometimes seems to move backwards in the sky and how solar and lunar eclipses occur.
Video: solar system
With SimSketch, a large study was conducted at NEMO Science Museum, in which 250 visitors aged 7 to 12 years started the program and in which the development of knowledge about the solar system was measured with a pre-post-test design. The result was that especially young pupils gained knowledge about the solar system with the help of this modelling task, in particular about the origin of solar and lunar eclipses. It also emerged that working with models was within reach in this age group, and that pupils generally appreciated working with them in a positive way.2,3
SimSketch is a modelling tool that brings the construction and exploration of models within reach of young students, from about the age of 10 years. It is a tool that can be used at the beginning of a modelling process to familiarise students with model-based reasoning at a common sense level. At the start of working with the tool, it is important that instructions are given on the operation of the program and on the required domain knowledge. During modelling, most students will need guidance in identifying relevant quantities and in naming relationships.