MEL2 Project Year 4

The purpose of our project is to promote students' scientific thinking when confronted with controversial and/or complex Earth and space science topics. We do this by using an instructional scaffold called the model-evidence link (MEL) diagram. We are currently adapting this scaffold to enable students to build their own MEL diagram, which we call the build-a-MEL (baMEL). Topics for MEL and baMEL activities include: climate change, earthquakes and fracking, wetlands use, formation of the moon, extreme weather, fossils and Earth's past, freshwater availability, and origins of the universe. As part of our project, we are collecting video and audio data of teachers and students use of these materials in classroom settings.