How do you interpret the term mental model and why do you think that it is important for learning?
I interpret a "mental model" as a strong conceptual understanding of a process. If a professor refers to a specific step or phase of a process, a student with a strong mental model will be able to recall all of their current understanding of the specific topic, and make the necessary adjustments to their mental models.
Can you think of an example where the imprecise or incorrect use of vocabulary caused needless confusion in real life? Describe the example and discuss how the confusion could have been avoided.
One common example is the difference between the academic and colloquial uses of the word "theory". In academia, a "theory" is something that has been rigorously tested and proven, but informally the word is often used to mean a conjecture or an idea that is untested. This leads to lots of confusion. One example that people think that since evolution is "just a theory", it isn't proven.
Can you give an example from your previous classes where an instructor has used an anthropomorphism to describe a nonhuman thing? What were/are the trade-offs of the description (i.e. why did the description work and what were its limitations)?
In chemistry classes, my past teachers and professors have often anthropomorphized atoms to describe the octet rule. For example, I've often heard that Fluorine is so close to having 8 electrons that it really "wants" to get to the full octet. This is a useful way to understand the octet rule, but it can fall apart in the case of some exceptions. For example, many transition metals are most stable with 5 electrons in the d block. The metaphor is not helpful for understanding this, and to understand it you need to understand the pauli exclusion principle.