Approaching minimal conditions for the introduction of mathematical modeling

Contrasting instructional approaches were used to introduce mathematical modeling to two sets of students with weak content skills and no prior modeling experience. One group was exposed to examples of models for a particular contextual problem; the other group was asked to construct their own model for the same situation. In less than three weeks, both groups progressed to the point where they demonstrated competence in understanding what a model was, and were capable of producing fairly sophisticated models.