The following scenarios, explicated from previous research, describe
how conceptual model learning objects might support science learning:
(1) Observation – A conceptual model can support students to make
links between the real world and the represented properties of a concept. It
can be designed so that learners can recognize properties from a real environ-
ment in the interface of a conceptual model, as well as the converse. These
representations of properties are not simply copies of the real world. Rather,
reality is represented through illustrations, diagrammatical representations,
analogies, metaphors, signs, cues, symbols, and icons.