Experimental/Investigative Question
What is the question you want to answer?
What are your expectations for an answer, or claim, in the conclusion?
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Content Areas and Skills
The resources linked below provide support strategies for most any science class.
Have a TA? Here’s an editable list of TA duties and an editable contract.
What is the question you want to answer?
What are your expectations for an answer, or claim, in the conclusion?
A claim is an answer to a question. Just about any question, actually.
You’ve come up with a question to investigate. You’ve gathered data, either from your own procedure and methodology, or perhaps from data compiled by others. You may have organized those data in a way that points to a pattern. Voila! Proof, right?
Nope.
It’s the first day of school.
You welcome students at the door and show them to their seats. You pass out books and materials, introduce yourself. You read the syllabus and get your kids motivated with an icebreaker. Right?
Nope. Not me.
I took a hot minute (read: decades) to learn to foster a culture of collaboration in my classroom. I learned the most important pieces of the puzzle pretty much by coincidence.
All teachers give lab safety instruction, right? Students learn to wear chemical splash goggles whenever chemicals, glassware, or heat are present. They learn what to wear on lab day, how to handle flames and glassware and chemicals, and how to operate and lab equipment they may need.
Since recorded time, humans have been curious about the natural world. They observed phenomena and sought explanations for what they saw. How is scientific knowledge developed? How is this knowledge changed as scientists find new evidence?