Why is my ng-model variable undefined in controller?

Question

I'm having trouble with $scope in my angular js project. When I use ng-model="modelExample" on an input field for example, I can't access it in my js using $scope.modelExample. Has anyone else had a similar problem?

It's bizarre, a function is called but ng-model doesn't bind. See my code below, the function refreshResults() is called when I submit the form but $scope.search returns as undefined.

angular.module('starter', 
    ['ionic', 
    'starter.controllers', 
    'starter.filters', 
    'akoenig.deckgrid', 
    "angucomplete",
    // 'ui.bootstrap', 
    'starter.services'])

.config(function($stateProvider, $urlRouterProvider) {
    $stateProvider
        .state('app', {
            url: "/app",
            abstract: true,
            templateUrl: "templates/menu.html",
            controller: 'AppCtrl'
        })

        .state('app.browse', {
            url: "/browse",
            views: {
                'menuContent' :{
                    templateUrl: "templates/browse.html",
                    controller: 'BrowseCtrl'
                }
            }
        })

        .state('app.search', {
            url: "/search",
            views: {
                'menuContent' :{
                    templateUrl: "templates/search.html",
                    controller: 'SearchCtrl'
                }
            }
        })
  // if none of the above states are matched, use this as the fallback
  $urlRouterProvider.otherwise('/app/browse');
});


angular.module('starter.controllers', [])
.controller('SearchCtrl', function($scope) {
    $scope.refreshResults = function() {
        console.log($scope.search);
    };
})


<ion-view>
    <ion-content class="has-header">
        <form ng-submit="refreshResults()" class="bar bar-header item-input-inset">
            <label class="item-input-wrapper">
                <i class="icon ion-ios7-search placeholder-icon"></i>
                <input type="search" placeholder="Search..." ng-model="search">
            </label>
        </form>
    </ion-content>
</ion-view> 

Answer 1

@DavidTryon solved my issue in the comments. I was using scope wrong. I needed to use an object not a string. In other words I need to do something like ng-model="search.term" not ng-model="search" and use it in the js like this: $scope.search.term. It has to do with inheritance but long story short, if your ng-model doesn't have a dot (.) in it, you're doing it wrong.

Here's more info: http://jimhoskins.com/2012/12/14/nested-scopes-in-angularjs.html

Thanks David!

Tom