Several challenges that face middle school students when trying to understand earth science are misconceptions about phenomena, some of which may be fueled by popular media stories; the inability to visualize effects or results; the inability to generalize from experiments to natural phenomena; and the inability to apply abstract concepts to predict changes.
To learn earth science, students who use WorldWatcher and the Learning-for-Use design framework follow a general pattern of Motivate, Knowledge Construction, and Knowledge Refinement.
In a study by Edelson, Salierno, Matese, Pitts and Sherin (2002), the Learning-for-Use model produced somewhat disappointing results when used to teach grade 5 students how physical geography affects global temperatures. Students still had many misconceptions about how different factors affect temperature when the unit was finished. As well, students had trouble applying information obtained during an experiment to their climate model. The authors of the study indicate that the poor results could be attributed to three reasons: first, the fact that the grade 5 students were not developmentally ready for the abstract reasoning in the unit; second, that the curriculum did not directly address some important prerequisite information; and third, that the project in question did not ask students to understand the why of the concepts, only the what and the how.
References
Edelson, D. (2001). Learning-for-use: A framework for the design of technology-supported inquiry activities. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38(3), pp. 335-385.
Edelson, D., Salierno, C., Matese, G., Pitts, V. & Sherin, B. (2002). Learning-for-use in earth science: Kids as climate modelers. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research on Science Teaching, New Orleans, LA. Retrieved from http://www.worldwatcher.northwestern.edu/userdownloands/pdf/LFU_PF_NARST02.v3.doc