Development and research on MoDa is part of the project From Access to Sustainability: Investigating Ways to Foster Sustainable Use of Computational Modeling in K-12 Science Classrooms (A2S). A2S is an NSF-funded research project (NSF DRK-12 Award #2010413) that seeks to support and examine the development of computational modeling as a sustained practice in middle school science classrooms through:

1. Designing a classroom-ready software platform and curricular units based on research-based design principles to support extended trajectories of computational modeling in science classrooms (i.e. MoDa).

2. Investigating students’ modeling trajectories across representational systems through small group discourse and classroom norms as students become more sophisticated modelers over time.