Making Science Real

......Teaching and learning science in the real world

Experimental/Investigative Questions

What  is the question you want to answer?

Yes or No questions are simple to write. For example, Does the temperature of the environment affect plant growth?  Does the length of a string affect the period of a pendulum?

What are your expectations for an answer, or claim, in the conclusion? (The claim is a short answer to the experimental question.)  This question will give you, from students, a simple, Yes, temperature affects plant growth or No, temperature does not affect plant growth.

Chances are, you wanted to know how temperature affects plant growth. The question needs to ask how.  Let’s re-word those questions to reflect how:  “How does temperature affect plant growth?”  “How does the length of string affect the period of a pendulum?”

You’ll get more detail in the answers or claims to such a question: “A higher temperature makes plants grow more.”  “A longer string length makes the period longer.”

Better answers! But do you want more descriptive detail from students as they write their conclusions?

Teach them data analysis using Claim, Evidence, Reasoning. 

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