Abstract: Forty-seven fifth grade students (40 group-tested and 7 individually interviewed) read a text describing
plate tectonics. At four points they drew diagrams of the spatial, causal, and dynamic processes inside
the earth. These diagrams along with students’ corresponding explanations, think-aloud protocols (for
those individually interviewed), and answers to inference questions were analysed in order to characterize
students’ models of the interior of the earth and models of its causal and dynamic processes.
Types and characteristics of models, and reasoning associated with them are presented. Additionally,
data from two exemplary students are presented as case studies. One student has considerable misunderstandings
regarding both her understanding of the spatial layout of the interior of the earth and its
causal mechanisms. The second student is more typical in terms of his initial models, but makes large
gains in revising his understanding about the causal and dynamic processes inside the earth. In both
cases, data are used to infer how each student used their diagrams as artefacts for externalizing knowledge,
inference making, and model-revision.
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