Planning open investigations in science

Drag the terms to the position in the text to give accurate meaning.

Match the following words to the (______)'s in the passage of text below.

Word list:

questions
brainstorm
expand
linking
mindmap
negotiate
variables
verify
fair
measured
understanding
investigation

Passage:

It is often quite challenging to get students to come up with their own (______) for (______). One useful strategy it to get students to (______) as many ideas of topics as possible. You can ask questions to prompt, clarify and (______) the student ideas. The process of (______) the ideas through a (______) can also help to provide students with inspiration. Next you need to get students to generate questions, and if working in a group, to (______) a final decision on a question to be investigated. The questions should be about exploring the relationship between two (______). They could be re-worded to the form: Does ...... influence ....? At some point the questions must be analysed. Do they meet the criteria of being practically possible in the classroom within the timeframe, have student ownership and do not merely (______) what students already know? Is it possible to develop a (______) test in which only one variable is changed, another variable is (______) and the rest of the variables are held constant as controls? Our goal is for students to have concrete experience of science concepts to build on their (______) of both scientific processes and ideas. A question that prompts an investigation that is easily controlled but does not further understanding may be less valuable than one that leads to a critical analysis of the processes but is underpinned by significant scientific ideas.

Solution