Modelling in key stages 1 and 2

The recent production of a new Open University certificate module in Primary Design and Technology provided the opportunity for some extended filming of primary school children engaging in a range of modelling activities. The paper will present a view of modelling in a technological context that has been arrived at in part from detailed observation and analysis of this video material. The view is that modelling has a range of distinct purposes (e.g. communicating, evaluating, etc.); has distinct kinds (e.g. 2D, 3D, symbolic, etc.); and that unless these purposes and kinds are distinguished at least in the teacher's mind, some of the most valuable teaching points will be lost. Using the purposes and kinds as an analytical framework then enables a range of models and modelling media to be analysed as to their suitability and an assessment of modelling in the design and technology order to be made.