I walked into my 7th grade science class one day to find several desks pushed together and covered with a large plastic model of a fantastic landscape. There were mountains and rivers, lakes and canyons, even a beach on the edge of a great ocean.

That day we were to begin studying landforms — unique physical structures on the planet. Instead of just talking about how a river or glacier affects the areas through which it flows, Mr. B. would point to a landform on the model and ask us to try to explain how it might have been created.

The model helped me understand the forces at work better than just reading or hearing a lecture about them. Even now, years after that introduction to landforms, I’m still using that knowledge.

When I see an image of a single mountain, shaped like a cone, rising far above its surroundings, I am fairly certain that it’s a volcano. When I see pictures of fjords — narrow inlets walled by steep mountain sides or cliffs — I know that I’m looking at a region where there were once glaciers.

Landforms on Mars — ancient river channels, deltas, and lakebeds — are important evidence that water once flowed across the surface of that planet. Imagine how that knowledge could help explorers to a new world make decisions about where to look for resources.

Today, satellite images and computer models are replacing the huge 3D model that I remember. Perhaps, in the not too distant future, students will be able to explore landforms with an instructor by walking through a virtual landscape. When they've seen a landform from ground-level, they could instantly fly up to an altitude of a mile or more to get a satellite view of it.  They might even be able to watch it form as the model animates the forces acting on the landscape in a fraction of the time the process usually takes.

Tools like these would not be possible without the work of software engineers (who develop the programming that makes the models work) and the electronic and mechanical engineers who are perfecting virtual reality technology. The models rely on data from satellite images, sonar/LIDAR maps, and graphics tools also made possible by the cutting-edge work of engineers in many different fields.

How do you use models to learn new things? How can engineers help make them better?