"It’s about Knowing the Givens and the Chosens"
Even if we give students the very best mathematical modeling problems, we are not necessarily teaching students to be good mathematical modelers. Mathematical modeling requires making choices, and teaching mathematical modeling requires knowing the choices to be made and teaching students how to be, well, choosy. We will make explicit the little and not so little things we can do every day to help students learn how to make choices that matter when modeling.