The main goal of this project is to trace and characterize the first steps of biological mechanistic reasoning. We will then build on these first steps to promote mechanistic understanding and mechanistic reasoning.
Since not enough is known about students’ abilities of mechanistic reasoning at these ages, the first stage of the project is focused around exploring how children construct mechanistic explanations and evaluate different types of explanations (mechanistic and non-mechanistic). We intend to identify and characterize milestones in the development of mechanistic reasoning at elementary school level and to explore how we can build on these milestones to promote mechanistic understanding and mechanistic reasoning. This will enable us to guide instruction and curriculum developers as to how to increase mechanistic reasoning skills among students. This project will be performed in collaboration with Marida Ergazaki, the University of Patras, Greece.