Undergraduate students may possess underdeveloped knowledge about water systems, particularly groundwater. The use of models and modeling have been employed in undergraduate classrooms to support students' learning about water. However, effective modeling requires spatial thinking skills, which undergraduate students may also need to develop.…

Water is one of Earth's fundamental natural systems. It is crucial to foster water literacy in today's global citizens, particularly through formal education. The purpose of this research, in parallel with a study focused on human dimensions of water systems (Mostacedo-Marasovic et al., in press), is to examine water-related K-12 standards for…

Groundwater is a critical component of the global water cycle and standards-based topic within science education. However, students articulate an array of ideas about groundwater systems, including their natural and human elements. One way to support students' learning about groundwater systems is through the use of data-driven, computer-based…

The most challenging global problems of our age involve coupled human--environmental systems within the Food-Energy-Water Nexus. The undergraduate students currently in our classrooms will be tomorrow's global citizens, each of whom must be prepared to understand and reason about these challenges and ultimately make decisions about them in a…

Growing human populations place increasing demands on our planet, resulting in an array of challenges with both scientific and non-scientific dimensions. These challenges are collectively known as socio-scientific issues (SSIs). It is essential to understand how students learn to use values to reason about SSIs, particularly when dealing with…

Water is a crucial topic that spans the K-12 science curriculum, including the elementary grades. Students should engage in the articulation, negotiation, and revision of model-based explanations about hydrologic phenomena. However, past research has shown that students, particularly early learners, often struggle to understand hydrologic…

Although knowledge of disciplinary concepts and epistemic understanding of science are foundations of scientific literacy, students must learn to apply their knowledge to real-world situations. To engage effectively with contemporary water-related challenges with scientific and social dimensions, students need to understand the properties of water…

Scientific modelling is a key practice in which K-12 students should engage to begin developing robust conceptual understanding of natural systems, including water. However, little past research has explored primary students' learning about groundwater, engagement in scientific modelling, and/or the ways in which teachers conceptualise and…

Opportunities to generate model-based explanations are crucial for elementary students, yet are rarely foregrounded in elementary science learning environments despite evidence that early learners can reason from models when provided with scaffolding. We used a quasi-experimental research design to investigate the comparative impact of a scaffold…

Elementary teachers play a crucial role in supporting and scaffolding students' model-based reasoning about natural phenomena, particularly complex systems such as the water cycle. However, little research exists to inform efforts in supporting elementary teachers' learning to foster model-centered, science learning environments. To address this…