Interdisciplinary modeling instruction: Helping fifth graders learn about levers

This chapter examines and comments on a brief teaching experiment in which fifth graders explored levers. The teacher-researcher employed modeling instruction (Hestenes, 1996), an inquiry based pedagogical approach that is widely utilized in high school physics instruction. The method relies on collaborative meaning making by students who work together in small groups on laboratory exercises or problems, whiteboard their findings and share and compare their thinking with other groups at "board meetings"-whole class discussions facilitated by the teacher-researcher. We analyze the teacher-researcher's choices in designing and managing the learning environment in this setting in an attempt to identify how this instructional method can best be used with students of this age and mathematical sophistication.