Background
Computational modeling is an increasingly common practice for disciplinary experts and therefore necessitates integration into science curricula. Computational models afford an opportunity for students to investigate the dynamics of biological systems, but there is significant gap in our knowledge of how these activities impact student knowledge of the structures, relationships, and dynamics of the system. We investigated how a computational modeling activity affected introductory biology students’ mental models of a prokaryotic gene regulatory system ( lac operon) by analyzing conceptual models created before and after the activity.

Results
Students’ pre-lesson conceptual models consisted of provided, system-general structures (e.g., activator, repressor) connected with predominantly incorrect relationships, representing an incomplete mental model of gene regulation. Students’ post-lesson conceptual models included more context-specific structures (e.g., cAMP, lac repressor) and increased in total number of structures and relationships. Student conceptual models also included higher quality relationships among structures, indicating they learned about these context-specific structures through integration with their expanding mental model rather than in isolation.

Conclusions
Student mental models meshed structures in a manner indicative of knowledge accretion while they were productively re-constructing their understanding of gene regulation. Conceptual models can inform instructors about how students are relating system structures and whether students are developing more sophisticated models of system-general and system-specific dynamics.



中文翻译：

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基因调控网络的计算模型改变了学生的思维模式

背景技术
对于学科专家而言，计算建模是一种越来越普遍的做法，因此有必要将其集成到科学课程中。计算模型为学生提供了研究生物系统动力学的机会，但是我们在这些活动如何影响学生对系统的结构，关系和动力学的知识方面的知识存在很大差距。我们通过分析活动前后创建的概念模型，研究了计算建模活动如何影响入门生物学学生的原核基因调控系统（ lac operon）的心理模型 。

结果
学生的课前概念模型由提供的，系统一般的结构（例如激活剂，阻遏物）与主要不正确的关系组成，代表了不完整的基因调控心理模型。学生的课后概念模型包括更多特定于上下文的结构（例如cAMP， lac 阻遏物），并且结构和关系的总数增加。学生的概念模型还包括结构之间的较高质量关系，表明他们通过与扩展的心理模型集成而不是孤立地了解了这些特定于上下文的结构。

结论
学生的心理模型以指示知识积累的方式对结构进行网格划分，同时有效地重建了他们对基因调控的理解。概念模型可以使教师了解学生如何关联系统结构，以及学生是否正在开发更复杂的系统通用模型和特定于系统的动力学模型。