NGSS Practices in Hestenes

All of the NGSS practices are discussed and suggested in Hestenes; however, some are done more so than others.  I will go through the practices and briefly discuss their role in Hestenes's conception of science instruction through modeling.

1. Asking questions & defining problems - Hestenes frames this in the sense that science instruction should help students develop conceptual explanations for real world problems.  He says answers to the questions and/or solutions to the problems can be determined through theoretical and experimental modeling games.
2. Developing & using models - developing models is the point of the article.  He also discusses how to use/validate models by utilizing their predictive power.  However, one of the primary points of the article is to explicitly teach modeling - what it is and how to do it - and then applying it to our specific content areas.
3. Planning & carrying out investigations - this is not emphasized as much beyond using the model to predict a testable outcome and carrying out investigations to determine how accurate or valid the model is
4. Analyzing and interpreting data - Hestenes spends a small amount of time discussing the importance of this, but it is couched in the broader framework of determining a model's validity and understanding the story.
5. Using mathematics and computational thinking - similar to 4, however there is also emphasis on the importance of pattern recognition in creating models, a skill also important in computational thinking.
6. Constructing explanations & defining solutions - Like 2, this is one of the points of the article.  However, revision of the model, something discussed at length in other articles we've read, is not strongly emphasized in Hestenes's article.  However, the way in which students construct explanations, backed by psychology, is emphasized in the discussion.  I especially liked the emphasis on reflective thinking to help students' metacognitive skills.
7. Engaging in argument from evidence - this is not as emphasized, but it is a necessary skill in defending the model that students create and forms a foundation for some of the concepts Hestenes discussed.
8. Obtaining, communicating, and evaluating information - this is probably the most underemphasized in the article; however, Hestenes describes the process of obtaining and communicating information and discusses in the conclusion the importance of evaluating the information.  He recommends a modified Socratic method to most effectively obtain and evaluate the new information while still retaining a direction and educational objective.