Modeling games in the Newtonian World

Abstract

The basic principles of Newtonian mechanics can be interpreted as a system of rules defining a medley of modeling games. The common objective of these games is to develop validated models of physical phenomena. This is the starting point for a promising new approach to physics instruction in which students are taught from the beginning that in science ‘‘modeling is the name of the game.’’ The main idea is to teach a system of explicit modeling principles and techniques, to familiarize the students with a basic set of physical models, and to give them plenty of practice in model building, model validation by experiment, and model deployment to explain, to predict, and to describe physical phenomena. Unfortunately, a complete implementation to this approach will require a major overhaul of standard instructional materials which is yet to be accomplished. This article lays down physical, epistemological, historical, and pedagogical rationale for the approach.

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