Investigating in Science
Exploring a situation
Amie makes more detailed observations and suggests patterns and relationships related to a scientific idea.
Asking questions
Amie generates, discusses, and chooses an interesting question to investigate:
whether soaking kōwhai seeds in cola for five days would be the best way
to get them to germinate.
Making predictions
She uses her developing scientific ideas to make a testable prediction (see Hypothesis and method).
Using systematic approaches and scientific conventions
Amie plans and carries out a systematic investigation to gather evidence
to test her ideas. She also uses an increasing range
of measurements and conventions. This can be seen in her table, graph, and
written results where she gathers her data systematically, measuring the germination
progress of her kōwhai seeds over a period of 16 weeks. The scientific conventions
she uses include measurements over time (in this case, the height of the seedlings),
using a spreadsheet, and controlling the variables (L 4–5).
Processing and interpreting
Amie is able to organise data to display trends and relationships – she converted the data in her spreadsheet into a line graph. She recognises the relationship in her data and uses her findings to draw a conclusion related to simple scientific ideas.
Evaluating the investigative process as a continuous activity
With support, Amie looks for strengths and weaknesses in her investigation and suggests an improvement (L3).
Reporting
Amie presents a well-organised report using data to support her conclusions. |
Thinking in Scientific Ways
Comparing and evaluating explanations
Amie recognises when there is not yet enough evidence to choose an explanation and suggests another explanation: "It is possible that when I soaked the seeds in cola for five days, it was too long and the cola started to kill the seed ...". |
