Interpreting and creating computational systems models is an important goal of science education. One aspect of computational systems modeling that is supported by modeling, systems thinking, and computational thinking literature is “testing, evaluating, and debugging models.” Through testing and debugging, students can identify aspects of their models that either do not match external data or conflict with their conceptual understandings of a phenomenon. This disconnect encourages students to make model revisions, which in turn deepens their conceptual understanding of a phenomenon. Given that many students find testing and debugging challenging, we set out to investigate the various testing and debugging behaviors and behavioral patterns that students use when building and revising computational system models in a supportive learning environment. We designed and implemented a 6-week unit where students constructed and revised a computational systems model of evaporative cooling using SageModeler software. Our results suggest that despite being in a common classroom, the three groups of students in this study all utilized different testing and debugging behavioral patterns. Group 1 focused on using external peer feedback to identify flaws in their model, group 2 used verbal and written discourse to critique their model’s structure and suggest structural changes, and group 3 relied on systemic analysis of model output to drive model revisions. These results suggest that multiple aspects of the learning environment are necessary to enable students to take these different approaches to testing and debugging.

解释和创建计算系统模型是科学教育的一个重要目标。建模、系统思维和计算思维文献支持的计算系统建模的一个方面是“测试、评估和调试模型”。通过测试和调试，学生可以识别模型中与外部数据不匹配或与他们对现象的概念理解相冲突的方面。这种脱节会鼓励学生进行模型修改，从而加深他们对现象的概念理解。鉴于许多学生发现测试和调试具有挑战性，我们着手调查学生在支持性学习环境中构建和修改计算系统模型时使用的各种测试和调试行为以及行为模式。我们设计并实施了一个为期 6 周的单元，在该单元中，学生使用 SageModeler 软件构建和修改了蒸发冷却的计算系统模型。我们的结果表明，尽管在同一个教室里，但本研究中的三组学生都使用了不同的测试和调试行为模式。第 1 组专注于使用外部同行反馈来识别其模型中的缺陷，第 2 组使用口头和书面话语来批评其模型的结构并提出结构更改建议，第 3 组依靠对模型输出的系统分析来推动模型修订。这些结果表明，学习环境的多个方面对于使学生能够采用这些不同的方法进行测试和调试是必要的。