Scientific Investigation Unit

November 5 November 21
VA Science SOL 3.1 (a-b, g-k) The student will demonstrate an understanding
of scientific reasoning, logic, and the nature of science by planning and
conducting investigations in which
a) observations are made and are repeated to ensure accuracy;
b) predictions are formulated using a variety of sources of information
g) questions are developed to formulate hypotheses;
h) data are gathered, charted, graphed, and analyzed;
i) unexpected or unusual quantitative data are recognized;
j) inferences are made and conclusions are drawn;
k) data are communicated;

Day 1 Introduction and Step 1: Observe and Ask Q

Wednesday 11/5
- Ask if they have heard of it
- Scientists try to solve problems to make our lives better. To do
this they have to go through a special process. This is called the
Scientific Method
- Intro with Brainpop Jr Video (stop and ask Qs during)
- Talk about each step (we will do one each day)
- Step 1 is observing and asking a question
-SMART:
- slide 1: Step 1: Observe and Ask a Question
-slide 2: what is an observation?
- observation write down what you see
(materials, etc)
- Slide 3: how can we make an observation?
- we use tools to observe (5 senses and
science tools)
- slide 4: show various tools - How can these tools
help you observe?
- WATER AND BLEACH EXPERIMENT demonstration of observing
**dont talk about step order** we are just practicing observing 3
OBSERVATIONS
- when we observe, it makes us wonder things and then we
come up with questions**
- slide 7: what makes a good question?
- slide 8: show a curious picture, what is a good question
you could ask by observing these two pictures?
- slide 9: write at least 1 question using your observations
from my demonstration with the food coloring in liquid

Day 2 Step 2: Make a hypothesis

- Thursday 11/6
-

Briefly and Generally review each step

Review sequence of steps
Review step 1: observe and ask Q
Intro step 2: make a hypothesis (educated guess)
What does hypothesis mean?
-PREDICTIONS
- Make SB lesson and Worksheet: give scenarios and have them
come up with hypotheses

Day 3 Step 3&4 : Conduct experiment & Collect Data

- Monday 11/10
-Review previous steps
-introduce conducting an experiment
-SB Lesson
- slide 19: Mention that something could go wrong the first time
so we need to do it again for better/more accurate results
- slide 22: show how we can write numbers in the chart or make
tallies
- I will model how to conduct the Nickel experiment
**NICKEL LAB
- Show them my plan to conduct the experiment
- while I am doing the lab, the students will practice collecting data
- Give them the Practice Collecting Data
- they can choose to write the final number of drops or make tally
marks
Homework: Come up with a question that you want to test by doing
this experiment tomorrow must be TESTABLE
-Examples: would adding soap or soap help it to hold more/less
water? Does a penny hold more water than a nickel?
- Cross curricular sheet

Day 4 Conduct own experiment and Collect Data

***STEM LAB***
-Tuesday (Kimble) 11/11
- Friday (Clark), 11/14
**THEY DESIGN AND DO THEIR OWN EXPERIMENT
- Review previous steps
- review conducting an experiment and collecting data
- Students share their questions similar questions may work together

- Design your experiment

- materials
- step by step plan of how you will do it
- Data collection
- how are you going to collect data?
- Conduct the actual experiment
*Coin Experiment paper
HOMEWORK: Cross curricular sheet
**Fall Musical on Thursday 11/13**

Day 5 Step 5: Analyze data/Conclusion

- Friday (Kimble) &
- Monday (Clark), 11/14 & 11/17

- Review sequence of steps

- Review steps 1-4
- Continue anything we missed on Friday from Penny lab
-WHAT IS A CONCLUSION analyze to come up with an
answer to your question.
- a lot of times, your questions doesnt get answered from
your experiment. So we would have to do another experiment to get
the answer to that question.
*Thomas Edison tried like 200 times to get the answer to
making a light bulb.
- MAKE UP FAKE DATA FROM HYPOTHESIS SLIDES IN SB
- Model drawing conclusions
- draw conclusions together 2 times
- draw conclusion on their own 2 times:
- 1 with fake data from SB
- 1 with penny lab vs mine*
- *Analyze data from PENNY LAB
- look at their data and see if it is similar
-if one is off, then discuss what might have happened
to cause it to be off from the rest of the data

Day 6 Step 6: Report Results/GRAPH

- Monday (Kimble)
- Tuesday (Clark) 11/12
- Review sequence of steps
- Review steps 1-5 *flip through SB LESSON

- talk about parts of a graph (title, axis, labels) : it makes it easier

for people to see what we did and see the results from our experiment
- Use my data from penny lab to make a graph
- show them how to make one graph with 2 sets of
data results

- Graph Lesson:
http://www.brainpopjr.com/science/scienceskills/tallychartsandbargraph
s/ ***START at 2 Min

Day 7 FOLDABLE
- Tuesday (Kimble) &
- Wednesday (Clark) 11/17

- Review sequence of steps

- Review steps 1-6 *flip through SB LESSON
- Term on front, definition on inside/right flap, example picture in
middle tri fold

Day 8 Brain Pop Jr. String Experiment

- Wednesday (Kimble) 11/19
- Thursday (Clark) 11/20

- Play matching game in 2 groups to review

Day 9 REVIEW
-Monday 11/24
Day 10 TEST
-Tuesday 11/25

NEED TO KNOW: *double check in CF

- observation definition
- hypothesis definition: If.then
statement
- knowing the order of steps/sequencing
- measurement within an experiment
- data definition
- accurate data must do repeated trials
- conclusion definition
- given certain data, come up with
conclusion
- simple bar graph of data collected
- simple chart for non numerical data
- quantitative and qualitative data