Our students may be used to using evidence to answer questions, but in Elk Habitat: A Case Study of Scientific Inquiry, the authors describe an activity in which students ask questions, examine evidence, ask new questions, and design potential research studies. If elk studies are not relevant for your students, look at the resources of the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science for more examples and resources. Wouldn’t it be interesting for older students to design case studies for younger grades?
The articles Argument-Driven Inquiry and A New Twist on Mystery Boxes both describe the value of argumentation in science. If argumentation is a new concept for your students, look at this month’s issue of Science and Children for ideas on how to introduce this type of discussion. Although “Mystery Boxes” have been used by many teachers, this could be a good activity for the beginning of the year, helping students to differentiate between evidence and inferences (and opinions). There is also a rubric for assessment.
Although there are many ways to measure temperature (use the code TST110901 in SciLinks,) The Sound of Crickets looks at whether the temperature can be estimated by counting cricket chirps. The process that the author used to figure out how to collect the evidence would be interesting for students to read about.
Students aren’t the only ones to engage in inquiry. Examining Student Work describes a process in which groups of teachers meet to examine student work in detail to examine student thinking and learning. Rather than looking only at the summative data from standardized tests, these teachers followed a systematic inquiry process to examine evidence of student learning throughout the school year. The authors provide many of the resources in the NSTA Connections, including an outline of a 55-minute study session. This month’s issue of Educational Leadership is devoted to the theme “Multiple Measures.” Many of the articles look at various types of assessments as examples of student work. Although most articles can be read online by nonmembers, unfortunately Looking at Student Work does require a fee for nonmembers. Perhaps a colleague who is a member of ASCD can get a copy for you.
Give a copy of Data, Data Everywhere to anyone in your school who analyzes data or transforms data into graphical representations. The author differentiates between types of data and describes the kinds of graphs that are appropriate for each, including how to graph the relationships between independent and dependent variables. To help students (or other teachers) communicate evidence graphically, check out the Create a Graph website from the National Center for Education Statistics. The Tutorial (which can be downloaded as a pdf file) also has an explanation of when to use various types of graphs and a discussion of independent and dependent variables. The tool itself can be used to make, save, and print graphs.