Science as Inquiry
Student Edition
Elaborate
The Processes of
Scientific Inquiry
In the previous activities, you have worked hard to learn how to develop an
explanation. And you looked at how doing this mapped with the parts on the
Processes of Scientific Inquiry handout. There are many activities and features of
scientific inquiry. In this Elaborate activity, you will dig deeper into these features.
As you learn more, your scientific explanations will improve.
You have learned that you use evidence to make a claim to answer a question
or explain data. This helps you write a strong scientific explanation. You also learned
that reasoning is an important part of a scientific explanation. Recall that you use
reasoning to justify why your evidence supports your claim. Many students (and
adults!) think that developing reasoning is difficult. In this activity, The Processes of
Scientific Inquiry, you will improve your skills at developing reasoning in scientific
explanations. You will do this as you design and conduct an investigation using a
toy (figure 1.12). Sometimes doing science as inquiry can be fun!
Materials
For each team of 3 students
1 popper
1 stopwatch
1 meterstick
assorted lab items for individual investigations
copies of the handout The Processes of Scientific Inquiry from the
Explain activity
1 highlighter
different-colored pens or pencils
Figure 1.12: Investigating with
poppers. These students are
conducting an investigation using
poppers. What testable question
can you ask about the behavior of
the poppers?
Process and Procedure
1.Prepare your science notebook for this activity by writing the title and the date
and by making an entry in the table of contents.
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Science as Inquiry
Student Edition
Elaborate
2.Observe the popper that your teacher has given you. With your team, discuss
the behavior of the popper as you pop it off your desk or the floor. Record at
least 3 questions you have about the popper.
Think of questions you could answer by conducting an
investigation in your classroom. Write these questions in
your science notebook.
3.Meet with your team to decide which questions are testable. Follow Steps 3a–b
to help you decide.
a. Share your questions from Step 2.
b. Identify questions in your list that are “testable questions.” Circle these
in your science notebook.
Read the Need to Know Testable Questions if you are
unsure which questions to identify.
Need to Know: Testable Questions
Scientists are always asking and trying to answer questions. These
questions include those that involve making observations and conducting
experiments. To answer the questions, scientists collect data from the
experiments. What makes a question testable? Such questions are often
about how one factor changes another. An example is, “How does the
speed of a car change the stopping distance?” This question is about the
relationship between how fast a car is going and how far the car goes
before it stops. Questions that ask “Why?” are harder to answer. Try to
ask questions that are specific and that you can answer by using the
equipment and supplies you have in your classroom.
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4.Work with your team to decide on 1 question from Step 3 to test by using
the popper. Refine the question if you need to so that it is specific and can be
answered using the available equipment and supplies. Once your teacher has
approved the question, record it in your science notebook.
5.At the end of this step, you and your team will design an investigation to answer
the question. It is important for your test to be fair. Use Steps 5a–d to help you
design a fair test.
a. Read the Need to Know A Fair Test on the next page to help with your
team’s design.
You will want to record some new words in your personal glossary.
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Science as Inquiry
Student Edition
Elaborate
Need to Know: A Fair Test
Suppose you and a friend are trying to see who could send a text message
the fastest. You are using a cell phone that has a keyboard, and your friend
is using a cell phone with just the number keypad. The message is the
same, “We won the ball game 14–12!” You and your friend start at the
same time. You win the contest! But is the contest fair? Conducting a fair
test is similar to conducting a fair contest. What does it mean to conduct a
fair test? By definition, a fair test is one that shows no favoritism in the
results. In the texting contest, you were favored because you had a phone
that allows you to text faster with a keyboard. To be fair, the contest should
have used the same cell phone. In a fair test, you must keep everything the
same except for what you are testing. This way, there is no favoritism
toward one thing or another. Scientists strive to conduct fair tests, so you
may think of a fair test as a scientific test. A scientific test will give you the
appropriate evidence you need to make a strong scientific explanation
about your investigation.
Think of the example you read about in the Need to Know Testable
Questions. The testable question is, “How does the speed of a car change
the stopping distance?” You want to see what the stopping distance is
when you change the speed of the car. You are only changing one thing—
the speed of the car. Conditions, or variables, are factors that can possibly
change within an investigation or from one investigation to another. The
speed of the car is the independent variable—the variable you are
changing. Because of what you are changing, the stopping distance will
also change. The stopping distance is the dependent variable—it depends
on what you are changing. To make this test fair, you must try to hold all
other variables the same. For the test, you use the same car and the same
amount of braking force, and you drive on the same surface. In this way,
you are conducting a fair test. You don’t want to use different cars because
the brakes of one car may be better than the brakes of another car. And
you don’t want to use different surfaces—stopping on a slick, wet road
would have different results than stopping on a gravel road. Changing
these other variables would keep you from answering the question, “How
does the speed of a car change the stopping distance?” The brakes or the
road surface would influence the stopping distance.
Sometimes it isn’t always possible to keep these other variables constant,
that is, to control variables. This is especially true when you do investigations in nature. But, to conduct a fair test, it is important to try.
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Science as Inquiry
Student Edition
Elaborate
Step 5 continued
b. Write your team’s design as a step-by-step procedure in your science
notebook.
c. Include a list of materials for the investigation.
d. Construct a data table to organize the data from your observations
and measurements.
Be sure you are recording data that will help you answer
the question. All team members must have the responses
to Steps 5b–d written in their science notebooks.
6. Get your teacher’s approval before you continue.
7.
After your teacher approves the design, follow Steps 7a–c to conduct
the investigation.
a. Work together to assign tasks for this investigation.
Remember what you learned about assigning tasks in an
earlier activity.
b. Gather the supplies you need and begin the investigation.
c. Be sure that all team members are recording the data in their
science notebooks.
Did you notice that you are doing science?
8.The explanation template (figure 1.11) can help you develop your explanation
about the question. Follow Steps 8a–e as you write your explanation.
a. Copy the column headings of the explanation template onto a new page
in your science notebook.
It may be helpful to turn your science notebook in a landscape
orientation before you copy the template.
b. Record the question you are trying to answer.
c. Record the appropriate evidence to answer the question.
d. Make a claim to answer the question. Record it in your template.
e. Record in the “reasoning column of the template the reasons that the
evidence supports the claim.
You will complete the template by writing your explanation
paragraph during Step 11.
9.Learn more about reasoning by reading Reasoning in Science beginning on the
next page. Reasoning is often the most difficult part of writing an explanation.
As you read, record ideas that will help you with your explanation.
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Science as Inquiry
Student Edition
Elaborate
Reading: Reasoning in Science
In the Explain activity, you learned about the three major parts of a
strong scientific explanation. These parts are evidence to help answer the
question, a claim based on that evidence, and reasoning. Strong reasoning
often is the most difficult part of writing scientific explanations. Think of
reasoning as a “link” or a “bridge” between your claim and the data. You
will use reasoning to explain why your data support your claim. In doing
so, your data become the evidence you use in your explanation. Strong
reasoning shows the relationship between your claim and your evidence.
And, when you learn scientific concepts, you will make connections to
these concepts through reasoning.
Imagine another team of students did an investigation with a popper.
Its question was, “How does mass affect how high a popper will go
when it pops?” The team taped pennies on the popper to change the
mass. The team collected the data shown in figure 1.13.
Figure 1.13: Popper data. The
team collected these data when it
did the investigation.
o
The team decided that the data about the number of pennies and how
high the popper popped helped it answer the question. This was the
evidence it would use to write its claim. This was the claim: “The
popper went higher with less mass (fewer pennies).” In the explanation,
the team decided not to use the distance the popper rolled nor the color,
diameter, or temperature of the room. The teammates didn’t think these
data were appropriate to answer the question—these data would not be
evidence they could use to support their claim.
continued
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Science as Inquiry
Student Edition
Elaborate
Figure 1.14: Explanation
template for poppers. This is
the team’s completed explanation
template. How can you use this
template to help you organize your
scientific explanations?
It is with reasoning that you will convince the reader that you have
made an accurate claim. Think about arguments you have had. What
convinced you that the other person was right? Or what was the
reasoning you used to convince the other person that you were right?
Reasoning is the argument you will use to convince the reader that your
evidence supports your claim.
A strong claim answers the question that you are investigating. Often in
science, it is difficult to know for sure what is right or wrong. Instead,
scientists decide what claim has the most convincing evidence to support
it. The reasoning must be logical to be convincing. Reasoning gives a
scientific reason for your explanation. Much like a lawyer in the closing
arguments of a trial, you must convince your peers or your teacher that
your claim is supported by evidence.
Your scientific explanation will be stronger if you include appropriate
scientific principles. These scientific principles are the science concepts
and ideas that you are learning. The team’s explanation in figure 1.14
uses the scientific principle of gravity and mass in the reasoning. So far,
in this program, you have not learned about any scientific principles,
but you will! When you use reasoning, you can rely on your past
learning in science to connect to scientific principles. If you know
appropriate scientific principles, use them. Your scientific explanations
will become stronger with more connections to scientific principles. You
will learn many of these throughout the year.
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Science as Inquiry
Student Edition
Elaborate
10.Share the new ideas you learned from the reading with a partner. Work
together to add to or revise the “reasoning/rationale” section of your
explanation template.
11.
Work by yourself as you write a scientific explanation about the results
of your investigation.
Record your explanation in the bottom section of your
explanation template.
Reflect and Connect
1.Look back to your explanation in Step 11. Circle your claim, highlight your
evidence, and underline your reasoning. Revise your work if you need to.
2.Find the Processes of Scientific Inquiry handout that you used in the Explain
activity. Mark additional places on the flowchart that reflect what you did in
this activity. Use a different-colored pen or pencil from what you used before.
Remember to make notes next to each X to give evidence for
your selection.
3. How will better reasoning help you make a stronger scientific explanation?
4.In the introduction to this chapter, learning goals are listed. These learning goals
are stated as follows:
By the end of chapter 1, Science as Inquiry, you will
n begin to understand that science is a way of knowing about and
understanding the natural world,
n
use evidence and reasoning to support scientific explanations, and
n
apply the processes of scientific inquiry to an investigation.
For each goal, describe what you have learned and if you think you have met
that goal.
5.Elaborate activities allow you to expand what you know about a concept. This
may mean you are learning more about the concept. Or it could mean that you
are applying the concept in a new way. In this chapter, you have been learning about science and scientific explanations.
Name one thing you did in this Elaborate activity that helped you learn more
about or apply these concepts.
You may use the Processes of Scientific Inquiry flowchart
to help you with your answer.
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Science as Inquiry
Student Edition
Elaborate
Optional Reading: Conducting a Fair Test
What does it mean to conduct a fair test? By definition, a fair test is one
that shows no favoritism in the results. You have learned some about fair
testing in the activities in this chapter. This reading will give you another
example to help you understand fair testing. Recall that in a fair test,
you must change only one thing and keep everything else the same. This
way there is no favoritism toward one thing or another. Scientists strive
to conduct fair tests, so you may think of a fair test as a scientific test.
A scientific test will give you the appropriate evidence you need to make
a strong scientific explanation about
Figure 1.15: A fair test. Was this a
fair test of the bean seeds?
your investigation.
Consider an example that describes
an investigation you might do with
plants. Is it a fair test—a scientific
test? Think about this question as
you read about the investigation.
Suppose you are a botanist, a
scientist who studies plants. You
want to breed a new type of bean
plant that you think could help get
rid of world hunger (figure 1.15).
You want this new bean plant to
grow in places that get a lot of sun but not much water. You have a
collection of five different bean seeds. Now it is time to conduct your
investigation to find out which bean seed will produce a plant that will
grow best in sunny, dry conditions.
First, you plant each different bean seed in the same-sized pot in the
same amount of soil at a depth of 5 cm. However, each pot has a
different type of soil: pot 1 has topsoil with fertilizer added; pot 2 has
clay soil; pot 3 has commercial potting soil; pot 4 has dirt from your
backyard; and pot 5 has sandy soil. Then you place pots 1 and 2 in a
sunny greenhouse, pots 3 and 4 in the shade outdoors, and pot 5 in
your living room window where the sun shines on the pot about two
hours every morning. You water each pot every three days with 250
milliliters of water. You organize your test information in a data table
like the one shown on the next page in figure 1.16.
continued
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Science as Inquiry
Student Edition
Elaborate
Type of
bean
seed
Size of
pot (L)
Planting
depth
(cm)
Amount
of soil
(L)
Type of
soil
Location
Water
No. 1
2
5
1.5
Topsoil
with
fertilizer
Sunny
greenhouse
250 mL
every 3
days
No. 2
2
5
1.5
Clay soil
Sunny
greenhouse
250 mL
every 3
days
1.5
Commercial
potting
soil
Shade
outdoors
250 mL
every 3
days
1.5
Dirt
from
backyard
Shade
outdoors
250 mL
every 3
days
Sandy
soil
Living
room
(direct
sunlight
– 2 hrs)
250 mL
every 3
days
No. 3
No. 4
No. 5
2
2
2
5
5
5
1.5
Figure 1.16: Conditions for your
bean seeds. This table organizes the
information about the setup for your
investigation of five different types of
bean seeds. Is this a fair test?
After six weeks, the bean plant in pot 1 is the tallest by about 15 cm and
has twice as many leaves. You claim that the bean seed in pot 1 is the
best, and you decide to produce a lot of those seeds to sell to people who
live in sunny, dry climates. Is this a valid conclusion? In other words, was
this a fair test of the five different bean seeds? Why or why not?
Answer these questions in your science notebook.
In deciding your answers, go back to the definition of a fair test. In a
fair test, you change only the thing you are testing and keep every other
condition the same so that there is no bias toward one thing or another.
Were all the different bean seeds (the thing you tested) treated the
same, or did some of the seeds receive better treatment than the others
did? Name the similarities and differences in how the bean seeds were
treated during the test.
Write the similarities and differences in a T-table in your
science notebook.
You probably noticed that the major differences were the types of
soil and the amount of sunlight that each plant received. There were
several conditions that were similar, but not all. Those similarities
continued
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Science as Inquiry
Student Edition
Elaborate
and differences are conditions known as variables. The variables are
factors that can possibly change within an investigation or from one
investigation to another.
To conduct a fair test, you need to control variables. That means that
you need to keep all variables the same except the one you want to test.
That includes all the variables involved in the entire test, from start to
finish. You learned in the Need to Know Fair Tests that the variable
you change is the independent variable. In this example, the variable
that you are changing or testing is the type of bean seed. You expect
that different bean seeds will grow differently. So the way they grow in
a hot dry climate is the dependent variable. The way the plants grow
depends on the type of bean seed.
For the bean seed test, you should consider the variables you need to
control: the size of the pot, the amount of soil, the type of soil, the
depth you plant the seeds, the amount of sunlight the seeds and plants
receive, the amount of water they receive, and how much and how
often you water the plants. If you control all of these variables and
grow each different bean plant under the same sunny, dry conditions,
then you should be able to make a claim to answer your question. You
will also have appropriate evidence to use to back up your claim.
In many activities, you will design a scientific investigation to answer
a question about what you are studying. As you design each test, keep
the important ideas about the test of the bean seeds in mind. You
might follow these steps in designing and conducting a fair test for
your investigations:
n
Identify or develop the question you are trying to answer.
Is it a testable question in science?
n
Identify the variable that you will change to help you answer
your question. This is the independent variable.
n
Identify what will respond to your changes. This is the
dependent variable.
n
I dentify what measurements or observations you will make
to help you answer your question.
n
I dentify all the variables that might affect the outcome of
your test.
n
P
lan how you will control all the variables you identified.
n
A
fter getting approval from your teacher, conduct your test
according to your plan.
continued
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Science as Inquiry
Student Edition
Elaborate
n
R
ecord your results in your data table and study the results
by looking for patterns.
n
F
ormulate a scientific explanation that answers your question
and includes evidence to support your claim and reasoning to
connect your evidence to your claim.
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