Planning Investigations Level 2

Expectations of students

What are the expectations of my students for investigating scientifically?

The draft Australian Curriculum: Science outlines a continuum of learning across the years as students progress their ability to plan how to investigate scientifically. Key points are that:

  • From years 1 and 2 students are developing the following inquiry skills: exploring, posing questions, making inferences and predictions, working safely using familiar equipment, manipulating materials and making observations and measurements with informal units. They use their observations as evidence and reflect on methods.

  • From year 3 and 4 students have expanded on earlier skills to also be able to recognise a fair test, collaboratively plan and conduct a range of investigation types, use appropriate materials, tools and equipment.

  • In years 5 and 6 students are expected to be able to identify a simple question that can be scientifically investigated, predict the outcome, contribute to decisions about the most appropriate investigation method, identify risks and select and safely use equipment and use a range of tools to observe and measure.

Read a detailed treatment of ‘Working Scientifically – Implementing and Assessing Open Investigation Work in Science’ by Mark Hackling found on the MyScience web site.

Review your understanding of this article in the ‘Working Scientifically’ quiz.

If you would like to read more about teaching scientific inquiry and posing ‘testable’ questions, follow this link.