OBJECTIVES:

• To guide teachers how to carry out the teaching and

learning of science through investigation.

• To help pupils to identify the scientific process skills.

• To engage pupils’ interest and allow them to

experience phenomena before starting.

• To help teachers to suggest ideas for experimenting.

• To help teachers to identify questions that can be

addressed and appropriate kind of experiments.
1. WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION?
Investigating in primary science means that you have to carry out a fair test, but
this is not the only element. There are many other important decisions which are
also needed to be made as part of the investigation:

Investigators make decisions about:

• What to change
• What to measure
• What to keep the same
• How they collect data, particularly numerical data
• How to observe or measure the effect of what has changed.
• How to record data
• How to make sense of the results
• How believable or valid their data is.

2. DO I HAVE TO TEACH EVERYTHING THROUGH INVESTIGATION?

Investigation is just one type of activity in science, despite a very important one.
However, there are a number of other activities which are equally important to
primary science and should not be neglected.

The central feature of investigation is that you must always change something and
measure the effect that it has on something else.

3. WHAT ARE VARIABLES?

The key variables in an investigation are the things you decide to change and to
measure.

SCIENTIFIC TERMINOLOGY
a. Manipulated variables / Independent variables / What to change
Think of these;
• What might affect the shadow?
• What might affect the ice cube to melt fast?

b. Responding Variables / Dependent variables / What to measure

Think of these;
• How the shadow might change
• The time the ice cube takes to melt

c. Control variables / What to keep the same

• What to keep the same to make it fair.
• Something that can influence your experiment

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4. WHAT DOES A COMPLETE INVESTIGATION LOOK LIKE?
This example describes the decisions made during the torch investigation. By
following the key variables through the investigation, you will see how they are the
central features of the process.

WHAT AFFECT THE SIZE OF THE SHADOW? [ More open]

TORCH AND SHADOW

A. Deciding on key variables

What will you change? DISTANCE OF THE TORCH

FROM THE OBJECT

What will you measure? LENGTH OF THE SHADOW

B. Asking questions
DISTANCE OF THE TORCH
What will you find out? When I change the FROM THE OBJECT

…what will happen to the SIZE OF THE SHADOW

C. Predicting or hypothesising
THE SIZE OF THE SHADOW WILL BE
BIGGER IF I PUT THE OBJECT CLOSER
What do you think will happen?
TO THE TORCH
D. Planning and design the test
I will put the torch at these distances
What value will you give as away from the object: 5cm, 10cm, 15cm
manipulated variables? 20cm and 25cm
What equipment will you use to I will measure the length of the
measure the responding variables? shadow with a 30cm ruler

How will you make it fair? What to keep the same:

I will use the same object
I will keep the pencil at the same position.
I will keep the torch at the same angle

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Recording the results

How will you show what happen? I will record the results as follows:

DISTANCE OF LENGTH OF THE

TORCH FROM SHADOW
OBJECT
5cm 13.2cm
10cm 12.3cm
15cm 11.1cm
20cm 10cm
25cm 9.9cm

E. Finding patterns in result Length of

the shadow
14

13

12

11

10

5 10 15 20 25
Distance of the
object from the torch

I noticed that as the DISTANCE OF THE TORCH FROM

THE OBJECT gets longer, the LENGTH OF THE
SHADOW gets shorter.

G. Making sense of the result The further the torch from the object is, the shorter the
length of the shadow is.

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6. As variables are central features of investigation, we can help children to
identify variables or aspects of an investigation through the
use of tables and graphs. The following is a method used to highlight the role of
variables in an investigation. The blank boxes in the diagrams below show the
places on which you can paste the cards indicating the manipulated and responding
variables. These labels(cards) can be reused in other sheets.
SHEET 1 SHEET 2

Brainstorming Deciding what to do

Things I could change Things I could change

Things I could measure or observe

Things I could measure or observe

I will keep these the same

Asking a Question
SHEET 3 SHEET 4TABLE OF RESULT
When I change
What I What I
What I change change measure

What will happen to ?

What I measure

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 SHEET 5 SHEET 6
Graphs of result Finding patterns in result

What happened to?

What I measure What I measure

When I change ?

What I measure

What I change

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 TEACHING HOW TO INVESTIGATE

1. It is vital for pupils to be able to combine all their skills in carrying out
a complete investigation. Therefore, we need to find out how each skill can be
taught effectively.

2. Good questioning is the most effective way of helping children learning how to
improve their skills. Therefore, teachers need to set up challenging questions
which enable them to understand a concept.

3. RAISING QUESTIONS/ ENABLING QUESTION

WHY DO WE RAISE QUESTION?

Without a question, or an idea to test, there is no investigation. Therefore, guiding
children to raise their own questions is very important. When children test their
own ideas, they feel that it is their own investigation. Thus, this will motivate them
to carry out their investigations more confidently

a. Class room activities to help children learn how to raise questions.

Ask children to think of a set of questions by using one of these approaches.
• Brainstorming.
• Pin the questions on the question board.
• Create a set of question cards.
• Make a list of questions of what I want to know.

b. It is often hard to find ways that help children to make their own suggestions for
investigation. One way of getting started is for you to decide what is to be
measured and then ask them to suggest the things that could be changed.

c. Begin with a demonstration.

I have decided that the children should measure the distance travelled by a toy
car by asking this question:
HOW COULD YOU MAKE THIS TOY CAR GO FURTHER.?.

Possible answers: MAKE THE RAMP HIGHER.

TRY IT ON SMOOTHER SURFACE.

4. PREDICTING AND HYPOTHESISING.

It helps to focus on the key variables.

Give clues to the measurement that should be taken.

a. Classroom activities to help children learn to predict.

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 Work in groups to write down 3-4 things they know about the scientific
context they will be investigating. Ask them to swap the list with other groups.
Example: Knowledge about melting of ice.
b. Write their predictions of how to make ice cube melt faster.

c. Give groups of children a list of control variables.

Provide them with negative clues and let them think whether it is a fair test or
not.
Example:
• Is it a fair test if you put a big spoon of sugar in glass and a small spoonful
in the other?
• Is it a fair test if you put the toy car in the middle of the ramp and then on
the top of the ramp?

5. MEASURING.

Why do we measure?
As you change something, you must measure (or observe) what happen in order to
see the effect of the changes.

a. You should encourage children to compare between non-standard

measurement with standard measurement.
b. Children need to be shown how to measure and read scales.
c. Discuss the benefits of using standard measurement
d. Provide them with measuring apparatus and guide them how to use it.

6. CONSTRUCTING AND USING TABLES.

Why do we use tables?

Tables are great organisers.
Tables present a lot of information with little writing

• Create classroom activities to guide children how to record their findings

using tables.

7. CONSTRUCTING AND USING GRAPH AND CHARTS.

Why do we use graph and charts?

To enable pupils to know how manipulated variable affect the responding
variables.
To help the pupils to see the pattern from the information they have collected.
To help them to develop their understanding by relating patterns and trends.

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 8. EXPLAINING RESULT.

Why do we need to explain the result?

To help pupils to understand the activity.
To enable pupils to see how their evidence is related to the hypothesis.
a. Good questioning technique helps children to explain about a result.
Examples:
• What is the pattern of the result?
• What have you learned from you investigation?
b. Teacher asks questions based on the graph.

9. PLANNING USING A PLANNING BOARD.

Example of planning using a planning SCIENTIFIC

board. INVESTIGATION PLANNING BOARD

Our question

Prepare incomplete question When we change the size of the ice

by leaving a blank. This is the table cubes, how long do they take to melt?
where we will
record our results.
Prepare incomplete table. Size of ice How long it takes
• What to change cube to melt
• What to measure small
medium
large
We will make a
fair test by
Identify suitable aspects for keeping place In classroom
control variables. these the same. beaker

We will use this

equipment Beaker, ice cube, stops watch
Provide pupils with different
equipment and guide them on
which equipment to use.

This is what we
think will
Ask pupils to predict what happen. The smaller ice cube will melt faster
will happen. than the bigger ice cube

This is the
graph we use.
Provide information to pupils 9
A bar chart
or let them find the results
from the chart.
 SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION REPORT

A complete result:

The result as shown

in the graph.
10 REPORTING USING A REPORTING BOARD

Size of ice cube Time taken to melt

Time taken to
Small 4 min
melt. 1 5min
Medium 10 min
Large 15 min
10 min

5 min

This is what we have Small Medium Large

learnt 10
The small ice cube melted faster then theSize of ice
bigger icecube
cube