Drawing-based modeling in teaching elementary biology as a diagnostic tool

n science education, students are expected to develop scientific thinking skills. We see modeling competence as a key element of these thinking skills. Modeling-based learning may be an effective teaching and learning approach because models play an important role in the formation of scientific knowledge. In particular, drawing-based modeling has many advantages when used in science education because it enables students to revise their spontaneous thoughts into more scientific concepts. This led to the hypothesis that drawing-based modeling and especially the SimSketch environment that supports it can be useful for supporting and assessing the development of students’ modeling competence. This design-based research was aimed at implementing drawing-based modeling in early science education in order to support scientific thinking and to test how we can assess modeling competence from students’ behavior. We designed a series of lessons for biology education in the context of the evolution of the garden snail. The series consisted of four lessons, and seven third-grade classes (N = 204) participated. The students worked in pairs, and we measured their modeling competence in two ways: with a pre- and post-test focusing on four aspects of the framework for modeling competence and by studying students’ model-related reasoning processes. On average, students obtained slightly higher levels of understanding on the post-test than they did on the pre-test (p < 0.001, d = 0.62). From the students’ logs and materials, we identified the specific issues the students had with the modeling task. We conclude by reflecting on how this modeling environment can be used to assess students’ modeling competence.