Zhang, B. H., Fretz, E. B., & Krajcik, J. S. (2003). Exploring middle school science students’ epistemological understanding of models and modeling and its changes over time. In European Science Education Research Association Conference 2003 Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands: NA. 

Student understanding of models and modeling was analyzed through interview and process data when they building computer models. Results showed that students improved their conceptual understanding to the extent that is closely tied to their real modeling experience.