Gather & Interpret data
Use evidence
Critique evidence
Interpret representations
Engage with science
Understanding about science
Investigating in science
Communicating in science
Participating and contributing
Living world
Material world
Physical world
Planet Earth and beyond
Level : 1,2
This resource illustrates how an article from Connected can be adapted to provide opportunities for students to strengthen their capability to gather and interpret data in the context of science.
The Nature of Science strand
| Aim | Achievement objectives relevant to this resource |
|---|---|
| Investigating in science Carry out scientific investigations using a variety of approaches: classifying and identifying, pattern seeking, exploring, investigating models, fair testing, making things or developing systems. | L1 & 2: Extend their experiences and personal explanations of the natural world through exploration, play, asking questions, and discussing simple models. |
The Material World and Physical World strands
| Aims | Achievement objectives relevant to this resource |
|---|---|
| Material World: Properties and changes of matter Investigate the properties of materials. | L1 & 2: Observe, describe and compare physical and chemical properties of common materials and changes that occur when materials are … heated. |
| Physical World: Physical inquiry and physics concepts Explore and investigate physical phenomena in everyday situations.
| L1 &2: Explore everyday examples of physical phenomena, such as … heat. Seek and describe simple patterns in physical phenomena. |
Students examine the results from an investigation and make inferences based on the data.
The article is about a class investigation into the role of the sun in evaporating puddles. At intervals the children drew around puddles and then talked about the results.
Adapting the resource
This article provides an opportunity for students to differentiate between data produced during an investigation and making inferences from this data. Because evaporation is a process that is invisible (although we can see the puddle getting smaller, we cannot see water in its gaseous form), students have to make inferences to explain where the water has gone.
The table below shows the sorts of questions that the teachercan ask to focus students on
a) The data collected from an investigation
b) Inferences that can be made from that data.
| Questions that focus on data | Questions that focus on inference |
|---|---|
| What happened to both puddles? [they disappeared] What did you see/notice about the puddles? | Where do you think the water might have gone? [1] Do you have any evidence to support that idea? |
| Which puddle took longer/shorter to dry up? | Why do you think that might be? |
To strengthen students’ awareness that there are two distinct actions, encourage them to talk about or record “What we see” and “What we think”.
What counts as evidence in science are observations (direct and indirect) of the natural physical world. Observation and measurement provide the tools for noticing patterns. Noticing the details of what happens provides a sound basis for developing and justifying explanations about the natural world.
Developing an appreciation of what counts as evidence in science supports students to become scientifically literate, i.e., to participate as critical, informed, and responsible citizens in a society in which science plays a significant role.(This is the purpose of science in NZC.)
| When you ask, “What do you see?” | When you ask, “What do you think?” |
|---|---|
| Do students limit their answers to things that are observable? How much detail do they include? Do they notice patterns and relationships in the data? | Do students support their ideas with their observations? Do they draw on a number of observations to support their ideas? Do they generalise from different sets of data? |
For suggestions about adapting tasks in ways that allow students to show progress in gathering and interpreting data see Progressions .
If you want to include this activity as part of a larger unit of work, consider students posing their own questions about other environmental factors that make a puddle evaporate more quickly. Students would then have opportunities for examining and explaining their own sets of data.
Rēwena: the Queen of Breads (Connected 1, 2003, page 23) describes how to make rēwena bread. If students actually do this, there are opportunities for them to notice and describe changes occurring and make inferences about what causes the changes to the dough.
The Shell Collector (Connected 1, 2005, pages 8-11) describes a real example of a student’s investigation about what eats native snails. Students could identify what she noticed, and what this made her think about. This article is the basis for a capability 5 resource.
The Assessment Resource Banks include many examples of data from investigations that students could discuss and differentiate between what they can see and what they think about. See for example:
The Building Science Concepts series includes several booklets that contain activities that could be used for Level 1 & 2 students to foreground making meaning from observations. See for example:
Counting Kōura (L1 & 2) Connected 1, 2007
Slimes and Oozes (L1 & 2) Making Better Sense of the Material World
The Land Changes: Keeping Earth’s Systems in Balance to Sustain Life (L1 & 2) Building Science Concepts, Booklet 52
“Eureka!”: Accidental Breakthroughs in Science (L3 & 4) Connected 3, 1999
Soil Animals: Diversity beneath Our Feet (L3 & 4) Building Science Concepts, Booklet 6
Weather (L3 & 4) Making Better Sense of Planet Earth and Beyond
Rolling marbles II (L3 & 4) Assessment Resource Banks
The Noisy Reef: Studying sound under water (L5) Science Learning Hub
Watch This Space (L5) Applications, 2007
Biowaste (L5) QTV archives, Digistore on TKI
Food Webs (L5) University of Canterbury: Science Outreach Resources
Connected, water
[1] This question is more about supporting ideas with evidence, but is a logical follow on to making observations and inferring from them.