This symposium focuses on the use of concept models as a tool to help chemistry teachers create solid lessons and activities for students’ deep conceptual learning in chemistry. Creating conceptual models using a system thinking framework will help teachers streamline and target their lessons to important concepts and prevent the incorporation of activities that take up time but are not necessarily supporting deep learning. Developing conceptual models will push teachers to assess their own understanding of the concepts and supporting lesson planning targeting students’ improved learning. Within the project EQuIPD, we found that ensuring that teachers frame their lessons by creating concept model development generated significant challenges for teachers. Teachers were assisted in creating lessons using system thinking both as a perspective where parts and whole are distinguished and defined, as well as a framework where supports like process mapping are used to support lesson planning. EQuIPD’s one-on-one facilitative coaching sessions with teachers continuously help them improve their using modeling for lesson planning.
In this symposium, we showcase conceptual models created by teachers supported through our project. We also present models created by students showing how targeted lesson planning including process mapping resulted in students' deeper understanding of chemistry concepts. We found that when teachers are supported in identifying the important concepts they are going to teach, anchor their lessons with state, regional or governmental standards and map the important conceptual elements to build the full model, these teachers are assessing and identifying what it is they understand about concepts.