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In this paper we describe a study that investigates whether---and how---authentic recreations of engineering practices can help students develop conceptual understanding of physics. We focus on the design-build-test cycle used by professional engineers in simulation-based rapid modeling. In this experiment, middle school students worked for 10 hours to solve engineering design challenges using SodaConstructor---a Java-based microworld---as a simulation environment. As a result of the experiment, students learned about center of mass. Our data further suggest that in the process of simulation-based modeling, rapid iterations of the design-build-test cycle progressively linked students' interest in the design activities and understanding of the concept of center of mass. We suggest that these rapid iterations of the design-build-test cycle functioned as exploratoids: short fragments of exploratory action in a microworld that cumulatively develop interest in and understanding of important scientific concepts.