Adaptations to the MBI Framework by Grade Level

In elementary classrooms, Model-Based Inquiry emphasizes concrete experiences, visual representations, and intentional scaffolding that supports young learners in making their thinking visible.

Teachers often select phenomena that are familiar, observable, and accessible through hands-on experiences. Modeling activities rely heavily on drawings, physical models, gestures, and shared class representations rather than extended written explanations. To support students’ emerging representational skills, models may be more tightly scaffolded using structured templates, such as before/during/after models or partially completed diagrams that students add to over time. These supports help students focus on sense-making while learning how models function as tools for explanation.

At lower elementary levels (K–3), final evidence-based explanations do not need to be written. Instead, teachers may assess student understanding through verbal explanations, where students explain the phenomenon using their model, evidence from activities, and class discussions. One common approach is for the teacher to meet with students individually, inviting them to share their explanation privately while referencing their model. This allows students to demonstrate understanding without the added challenge of extended writing and provides teachers with rich insight into student reasoning.

Elementary students bring powerful assets to Model-Based Inquiry work. Their enthusiasm, curiosity, and willingness to share ideas create a strong foundation for collaborative sense-making. Young learners are often eager to revise their thinking, listen to peers, and contribute to class explanations. MBI builds on these strengths by creating regular opportunities for students to talk, draw, and refine ideas together, helping them see themselves as capable sense-makers from the very beginning of their science learning.

In middle school classrooms, Model-Based Inquiry builds on students’ growing capacity for abstract thinking, argumentation, and sustained engagement with complex ideas, while still providing structure that supports productive sense-making.

Teachers often work with phenomena that require students to reason beyond direct observation and begin connecting evidence to underlying mechanisms. Modeling activities typically combine visual representations with written annotations and emerging quantitative data. Instructional routines increasingly press students to explain how evidence supports or challenges specific components of a model and to revise their ideas in response to new information.

At this grade level, models may still be scaffolded, but in ways that encourage greater student agency. Teachers might use prompts that guide revision rather than fixed templates, or tools such as evidence trackers and model comparison charts that help students reflect on how and why their thinking is changing. Consensus-building discussions and peer feedback become central, supporting students in articulating and defending ideas while learning to take others’ perspectives seriously.

Middle school students bring important assets to Model-Based Inquiry. They are often highly curious, eager to debate ideas, and motivated by opportunities to test claims and challenge explanations. Students at this age are developing strong social awareness and benefit from collaborative structures that allow them to compare models, negotiate meaning, and collectively refine explanations. MBI leverages these strengths by positioning students as contributors to shared knowledge-building, helping them see science as a dynamic process of figuring things out together rather than a set of answers to memorize.

In high school classrooms, Model-Based Inquiry supports students in engaging with scientific ideas at a high level of disciplinary rigor while maintaining a focus on explanation, evidence, and model-based reasoning.

Teachers often select phenomena that require mechanistic explanations, integration of multiple lines of evidence, and attention to system interactions over time. Modeling activities ask students to develop, test, and revise increasingly sophisticated representations that account for patterns, constraints, and underlying processes. Students may use simulations, data sets, or laboratory investigations to evaluate model predictions and explore the strengths and limitations of their explanations.

At this level, scaffolding shifts toward supporting students’ independence and epistemic responsibility. Rather than providing model templates, teachers typically use revision prompts, critique protocols, and explicit criteria for what counts as a strong model or explanation in the discipline. Peer review and public critique become central instructional practices, with students expected to justify modeling decisions, respond to counterarguments, and revise explanations accordingly.

High school students bring powerful assets to Model-Based Inquiry. They are increasingly capable of sustained reasoning, meta-reflection on their own thinking, and productive critique of ideas. Many are motivated by opportunities to engage in authentic scientific practices, wrestle with uncertainty, and construct explanations that feel meaningful rather than prescribed. MBI leverages these strengths by positioning students as sense-makers who use evidence and models to build coherent explanations of complex phenomena, mirroring the intellectual work of science while remaining grounded in the classroom context.