<Science Grades 6-8 - Inquiry Expectations>

Board Approved – April 8, 2004

Science Grades 6-8 – Grade Level Expectations

INQUIRY (Skills and Processes)

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INVESTIGATING SYSTEMS

Questioning

Generate multiple questions based on observations.
Identify a question that can be investigated.
Generate a question that was investigated in a scientific investigation.
Generate a new question that can be investigated in the same scientific investigation.

Planning and Conducting Safe Investigations

Make predictions and give reasons (hypotheses) for the predictions.
Design and conduct an investigation.
Identify controlled, manipulated, independent, responding and dependent variables.
Use appropriate tools and techniques, including mathematical analysis and available computer technology, to collect, analyze, and interpret data from multiple trials.
Identify and use appropriate units for the investigation.
Identify and describe possible sources of error in the investigation and suggest an improved design.
Identify and explain safety requirements that would be needed in the investigation.

Explaining

Write an explanation based on results and support that interpretation with specific observations or data.
Explain how the prediction is or is not supported by the data.
Predict what logically might occur if the investigation lasted longer or changed.
Explain the results drawn from repeated or a number of related investigations.

Modeling

Identify and explain how a model is often used to think about the behavior of an object, event, or process.
Use changes in a model to predict outcomes of changes in a real system.
Identify and describe how to manipulate or modify a model to investigate changes in a system.
Identify strengths and limitations in a given model.
Construct and test a scale model of a physical or biological object, event, or process.

Communicating

Accurately communicate and report procedures, data, and conclusions of investigations orally, in writing, with available computer-based technology, and in the language of mathematics.
Explain the purpose of each step in a given investigation.
Use mathematics appropriately to collect and analyze data.
Plan and deliver a written or oral presentation about science using effective logic, supportive data, and appropriate science and mathematical terminology.
Describe connections between the results, prediction (hypothesis), and phenomenon.

NATURE OF SCIENCE

Intellectual Honesty

Explain why science is done using a specific methodology.
Explain why scientists are expected to accurately and honestly record and report results.
Share results.
Accurately and honestly analyze results from their own and others' work.
Give credit to information sources.

Limitations of Science and Technology

Explain that science investigations seek to find patterns in nature.
Identify and explain the relationship between a question and the type of research.
Describe an investigation that will result in understanding the natural world.
Identify and explain the relationship between the domain of research and the methods used to investigate questions.
Compare and contrast questions that can be answered using observable/measurable data and those that cannot.

Evaluating Inconsistent Results

Evaluating Methods of Investigation

Identify or describe one event that could have led to unexpected data in a given investigation.
Document flaws of a given investigation when the data is inconsistent with the prediction.
Identify or describe ways to improve the plan of an investigation when the data is inconsistent with a second investigation.
Identify an appropriate scientific response when given a description of a scientific discovery that is inconsistent with previous thinking.

Evolution of Scientific Ideas