Recent science education reforms, as described in the Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2012), call for three-dimensional learning that engages students in scientific practices and the use of scientific lenses to learn science content. However, relatively little research at any grade level has focused on how students develop this kind of three-dimensional knowledge that includes crosscutting concepts. This paper aims to contribute to a growing knowledge base that describes how to engage students in three-dimensional learning by exploring to what extent elementary students represent the crosscutting concept systems and system models when engaged in the practice developing and using models as part of an NGSS-aligned curriculum unit. This paper answers the questions: How do students represent elements of crosscutting concepts in conceptual models of water systems? How do students’ representations of crosscutting concepts change related to different task-based scaffolds? To analyze students’ models, we developed and applied a descriptive coding scheme to describe how the students illustrated the flow of water. The results show important differences in how students represented system elements across models. Findings provide insight for the kinds of support that students might need in order to move towards the development of three-dimensional understandings of science content.

如K-12科学教育框架中所述，最近的科学教育改革（NRC，2012年）呼吁进行三维学习，使学生参与科学实践并使用科学视角来学习科学内容。但是，在任何年级都很少有研究集中在学生如何开发这种包含横切概念的三维知识上。本文旨在为不断壮大的知识库做出贡献，该知识库描述了如何探索小学生在从事实践开发和使用模型作为NGSS的一部分时代表横切概念系统和系统模型的程度，从而使学生参与三维学习统一的课程单位。本文回答了以下问题：学生如何在水系统概念模型中代表横切概念的元素？学生对跨领域概念的表示方式如何与基于任务的不同脚手架相关？为了分析学生的模型，我们开发并应用了描述性编码方案来描述学生如何说明水流。结果显示学生在跨模型表示系统元素的方式上存在重要差异。调查结果提供了对学生可能需要的各种支持的见识，以便朝着对科学内容的三维理解的方向发展。结果显示学生在跨模型表示系统元素的方式上存在重要差异。调查结果提供了对学生可能需要的各种支持的见识，以便朝着对科学内容的三维理解的方向发展。结果显示学生在跨模型表示系统元素的方式上存在重要差异。调查结果提供了对学生可能需要的各种支持的见识，以便朝着对科学内容的三维理解的方向发展。