What Is Model-Based Learning?

Model-based learning uses a physical or conceptual model as the starting point for instruction rather than the final product. Students handle a representation of a molecule or system, make observations, ask questions, and build explanations — connecting scientific vocabulary to something they have already experienced. Modeling is the process learners use to make sense of a concept, test a prediction, or communicate a complex idea.

Four Things Change When Models Come First 

Concepts Before Vocabulary

When learners explore a model with their hands, abstract ideas become something they can question, discuss, and revise. Vocabulary sticks when it's attached to a real experience. Students build the meaning first, and the word becomes a label for something they already understand. 

Research on science learning for multilingual students supports this sequence directly: doing science inherently involves language, which "differs greatly from the conventional perspective that focuses on learning vocabulary and grammar before they use it" (Lee, Quinn & Valdés, 2013). 

Curiosity and Conversation

Models invite learners into science through observation and play. As students handle a model, they naturally start asking questions about structure, function, and change — and those questions turn into conversation as classmates compare interpretations and refine explanations together. 

Because the conversation centers on a shared object, students don't need prior knowledge to participate. The model becomes the common language. 

Access for Every Learner

A tangible starting point lowers the barrier to entry regardless of prior knowledge, language, or confidence. Models can be largely language-independent, which makes them a recommended practice for English learners (Fairbairn & Jones-Vo, 2010). For students who are blind or have low vision, tactile representations are not a supplement but the primary route into abstract concepts (Sahin & Yorek, 2009). 

In a three-year study of an undergraduate cell and molecular biology course, students made significantly higher gains on the concepts taught with physical models than on concepts taught through clicker questions or peer discussion, measured with a validated Central Dogma Concept Inventory. Higher-performing students refined mental models they already had; lower-performing students built new understanding much closer to an expert's (Newman et al., 2018).  

What the Research Says About Modeling

Modeling isn't our idea. It's a scientific practice, and the case for teaching it is documented. 

It's a national standard. "Developing and Using Models" is Practice 2 of the eight science and engineering practices in the NRC's Framework for K-12 Science Education and the NGSS. The standard explicitly names our category: students should "represent and explain phenomena with multiple types of models — for example, represent molecules with 3-D models or with bond diagrams." Some researchers argue that modeling is the practice that anchors the other seven (Schwarz, Passmore & Reiser, 2017). At the undergraduate level, Vision and Change names modeling and simulation as one of four core competencies. 

Handling a model changes outcomes measurably. In a 2025 study, letting students handle physical macromolecule models for just three to five minutes converted low-gain lectures into medium-gain lectures on protein and DNA misconceptions (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education). 

It can narrow gaps. A single exposure to handheld physical protein models raised female students' quiz scores from 9.1 to 12.1 out of 27, bringing them to a level with their male peers (Forbes-Lorman et al., 2016). 

Active engagement beats lecture at scale. Across 6,542 introductory physics students, courses using interactive engagement achieved conceptual learning gains roughly double those of traditional courses (Hake, 1998). 

Physical manipulation supports cognition. Embodied cognition research finds that sensory and motor engagement shapes understanding — when learners manipulate a model, touch and proprioception become part of how they reason (Newcombe & Weisberg, 2017; DeSutter & Stieff, 2017).

Where the Evidence is Still Open

Several rigorous studies find that well-designed virtual models produce learning gains statistically equivalent to physical ones (Stull & Hegarty, 2016). The strongest claim the research supports is not that physical models beat digital ones — it's that models beat no models, and that physical and digital work best together. That's why we build augmented reality and interactive activities alongside our kits rather than instead of them. 

There are also real gaps. Most modeling research has studied undergraduates, not high school students. Most of it comes from chemistry and earth science rather than biology. And touch remains far less studied than vision or hearing. Those gaps are part of why we do funded research rather than only selling products. 

How Modeling Maps to Your Standards

Common Questions About Teaching With Models

Do physical models still matter now that simulations and AI visualizations exist? 

Yes, and the honest answer is that they work best together. Studies comparing well-designed virtual models to physical ones often find equivalent learning gains. What physical models add is shared, embodied, low-barrier access — several students around one object, no device required, no login. That's why our kits ship with free digital and augmented reality extensions rather than competing with them.

Isn't modeling something students do at the end of a unit?

That's the traditional use, and it's the shift we're arguing for. When a model is only a final product, it can't help students make sense of anything along the way. Researchers describe this as the difference between using "models of" science and using "models for" learning (Gouvea & Passmore, 2017).

I don't have time to add an activity. Where would this fit?

It doesn't have to be an activity. In one study, three to five minutes of students handling a physical model during an otherwise ordinary lecture measurably improved conceptual gains. Start there.

Do I need training to teach this way?

No, but most teachers tell us it helps — especially if modeling wasn't part of their own preparation. Our summer courses, Model Teacher Program, and free resources all exist for that reason.

What if I want to try before we buy?

Our Lending Library lets you borrow classroom kits for a week and use them with your students first.