Science Modeling Talks

In this episode, Mark talks with Colleen Megowan-Romanowicz, AMTA's first executive officer and now senior fellow, and Rebecca Vieyra, who works through many channels to improve our systems of education. They talk about the value of teacher training in a workshop setting, where the instructor and participants all participate in building content knowledge. Rebecca tells us about some of the project...

In this episode, Mark talks with Colleen Megowan-Romanowicz, AMTA's first executive officer and now senior fellow, and Wendy Hehemann, AMTA's national workshop coordinator. They talk about the beginnings of AMTA as an organization and about workshops, both in-person and virtual. They talk about the benefits of attending each kind of workshop as well as how workshop leaders are chosen. Guest Bios W...

In this conversation, Mark Royce talks with AMTA executive officer Bill Thornburgh about the challenges and ways to make the most of our time while working with students remotely. They talk in particular about how some aspects of modeling instruction are challenging in this environment, but how we can continue to do many of the things we find so valuable for our students and their learning. They a...

In this conversation, Christi Medoza and George Nelson talk about modeling at the middle school level. They talk about the challenges some teachers see in the variety of topics covered in middle school science, but the wonderful way that modeling instruction lets us adjust the way things are done in class, and let the students lead the way in discovering the way various phenomena work. They each s...

In this episode, Mark talks with Ariel Serkin and Tanea Hibler, modelers who are passionate about building equity and dismantling racism in the classroom. They share reasons that they are passionate about the work and talk about big things and little things they do in their classrooms to increase representation for all of their students, create safe spaces, and open dialogue about race within the...

In this episode, we hear from Raymond Howanski from outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He talks about the reasons his district changed the order of their science classes to begin with physics before progressing to chemistry and finally biology. He talks about the additional topics they can cover in a biology course when students already understand the chemistry involved in processes. Ray also tal...

In this conversation with Erica Posthuma, we hear about her experience of going through her first modeling workshop and the "aha" moments that she experienced. Erica talks about how modeling instruction makes chemistry accessible to even students who do not perceive themselves as strong math students. She talks about how modeling instruction units align well with the big goals of NGSS. Finally, Er...

In this conversation with Brenda Royce, we hear about the things she learned while going through two summer workshops in modeling instruction and then teaching physics and later chemistry using modeling methods. Brenda talks about becoming aware of student misconceptions as well as learning to help students think through the observations they are making. Finally, she shares feedback she has receiv...

This episode is a conversation with Dr. David Hestenes. Dr. Hestenes talks about his own education and work in various universities and departments. He talks about his graduate education and then goes in-depth about the research that led to developing the ideas and methodology underlying modeling instruction in physics and later other sciences and mathematics. Guest Bio David Orlin Hestenes, Ph. D...

Colleen Megowan has extensive experience teaching in the classroom in California. She did her graduate work and eventually went on to teach at Arizona State University. Colleen was at ASU during the very beginning of the formation of AMTA and served as its first Executive Officer in 2011. Mark talks to Colleen about her early days in teaching using modeling instruction and what drives her to conti...

In this episode, we hear from Larry Dukerich, one of the key people who developed modeling resources for chemistry instruction. He talks about how modeling changed the way he taught and expands on the three main ways that modeling differs from a traditional lecture-style classroom. Guest Bio Larry Dukerich received his B.S. in Chemistry from Michigan State University and his Masters of Natural Sci...

Learn about Science Modeling Talks in a brief introduction.