Skills for the Inquiry Process

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Skills for the Inquiry Process
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Investigating through Experimentation

• Scientists try to understand the natural world
  around them
• They use physical evidence that they discover
  through observations

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• Natural events are complex and involve many
  factors (or variables)
• Study the variables so that you understand the
  event

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Creating a Scientific Model

• Model- a tool scientists use to help them
  understand observations and make better inferences

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Observing

• Science is based on empiricism- a search for
  knowledge based on experimentation and observation

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• Two types of observations
• Quantitative- (quantity) Measures exactly
• Qualitative- (quality) describes

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Elephant Observations

• A long time ago in a distant land, six blind men
  traveled together. All of them had heard of
  elephants, but they had never seen one. When
  they heard that an elephant and his trainer would
  be visiting their village, they all wanted an
  encounter with this beast. They made their way
  to the site where the elephant was being kept.
  Each blind man touched the elephant and made his
  observations. The observations are listed below.
• One man touched the elephants side and said, an
  elephant is like a wall
• Another touched the trunk and said, an elephant
  is like a snake
• Another touched a tusk and said, an elephant is
  like a spear
• Another man touched a leg and said, an elephant
  is like a tree
• Another man touched an ear and said, an elephant
  is like a fan
• The last touched the tail and said, an elephant
  is like a rope

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Inferring

• Inferences- explanations of observations
• The only rule of inferring is to be logical

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Rules for writing research questions

• State research questions in question form
• Avoid questions that can be answered yes or no

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• Start with phrases like, to what extent or
  what evidence indicates
• Include information that will limit the research
  question. Be specific.

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Steps for writing a good Question

• Identify what you want to test
• - ex. How long will it take for my whirrleygig
  to land on the ground?
• - ex. How many spins will my whirrleygig make
  before landing?
• - ex. How does the length of the blades affect
  the time it takes for my whirrleygig to land on
  the floor?
• - ex. How does the length of the body of my
  whirrleygig affect the number of spins my
  whirrleygig will make?

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TYPES OF QUESTIONS

• Type 1 one variable
• Type 2 two variables
• what affect will variable 1 have on variable 2

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Predicting

• Predicting- the forecasting of future events
• Based on past observations or available data

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• The assumption that the world behaves in an
  orderly manner helps scientists use available and
  accurate data to forecast future events

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Hypothesizing

• Hypothesis- a prediction that forecasts what the
  effect of something might be.
• Expresses a logical explanation that can be tested

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Steps for writing a good Hypotheses

• - ex. The whirrleygig will land from shoulder
  height in less than 5 seconds because
• - ex. The whirrleygig will spin 6 times before
  landing because
• - ex. A short blade of 2 cm. will land faster
  than a long blade of 5 cm. because
• - ex. A longer body will decrease the number of
  rotations of the whirrleygig before it hits the
  ground because

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Identifying and Manipulating Variables

• Variables are factors, conditions, and/or
  relationships that can change or be changed in an
  event or system.

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Three Kinds of Variables

• Independent variable- changed on purpose by the
  investigator in an experiment
• the variable that is manipulated

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• Dependent Variable- changes because the
  independent variable changed
• responds because of the change
• Controlled variable- a variable that is not
  changed

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METHODS

• are steps or procedures for how to conduct your
  investigation
• the idea is that they are clear enough so that
  any other person could replicate (or repeat) your
  investigation

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Organizing and Interpreting Data

• By organizing data, a scientist can more easily
  interpret what has been observed
• Making sense of observations is called data
  interpretation

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• Data tables- observations
• Graphs- created from data tables
• Bar graphs
• Line graphs

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Making a Graph

• graph your quantitative data

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Interpreting Data

• look for patterns and trends that your graph
  shows
• summarize your qualitative data

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Results

• tell what the answer to your question is
• a statement
• uses reasoning
• because...

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Conclusions

• 3 sections

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Conclusions

• CLAIM an accurate and complete statement that
  responds to the question(s) you asked in your
  investigation

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Conclusions

• EVIDENCE appropriate and sufficient scientific
  data that support the claim. This evidence is
  usually found in your descriptive/qualitative
  observations. This evidence is also found in the
  data/quantitative observations.

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Conclusions

• REASONING use appropriate and sufficient
  scientific principles to link this claim to the
  evidence and show why your data counts as
  evidence to support the claim.