Scientific Knowledge and Skill Standards

1. Enhancing mastery of subject matter

Scientific investigations may enhance student understanding of specific scientific facts and concepts and of the way in which these facts and concepts are organized in the scientific disciplines.

2. Developing scientific reasoning

Scientific investigations may promote a student’s ability to identify questions and concepts that guide scientific investigations; to design and conduct scientific investigations; to develop and revise scientific explanations and models; to recognize and analyze alternative explanations and models; and to make and defend a scientific argument. Making a scientific argument includes such abilities as writing, reviewing information, using scientific language appropriately, constructing a reasoned argument, and responding to critical comments.

3. Understanding the complexity and ambiguity of empirical work

Interacting with the unconstrained environment of the material world in scientific investigations may help students concretely understand the inherent complexity and ambiguity of natural phenomena. Scientific investigations may help students learn to address the challenges inherent in directly observing and manipulating the material world, including troubleshooting equipment used to make observations, understanding measurement error, and interpreting and aggregating the resulting data.

4. Developing practical skills

In scientific investigations, students may learn to use the tools and conventions of science. For example, they may develop skills in using scientific equipment correctly and safely, making observations, taking measurements, and carrying out well-defined scientific procedures.

5. Understanding the nature of science

Scientific investigations may help students to understand the values and assumptions inherent in the development and interpretation of scientific knowledge, such as the idea that science is a human endeavor that seeks to understand the material world and that scientific theories, models, and explanations change over time on the basis of new evidence.

6. Cultivating interest in science and interest in learning science

As a result of scientific investigations that make science “come alive,” students may become interested in learning more about science and see it as relevant to everyday life.

7. Development of teamwork skills

Scientific investigations may also promote a student’s ability to collaborate effectively with others in carrying out complex tasks, to share the work of the task, to assume different roles at different times, and to contribute and respond to ideas.

Curriculum Design and Integration Standards

1. Clearly communicated purposes

Effective scientific investigations should have clear learning goals that guide the design of the experience.

2. Sequenced into the flow of instruction

Scientific investigations should be thoughtfully sequenced into the flow of classroom science instruction. Instructional units embed scientific investigations with other activities that build on the scientific investigations and push students to reflect on and better understand these experiences.

3. Integrated learning of science concepts and processes

Instructional units intertwine exploration of content with process through scientific investigations.

4. Ongoing discussion and reflection

Instruction includes discussing scientific investigations and reflecting on the meaning they can make from them. Scientific investigations and the surrounding instructional activities include developing explanations to make sense of patterns of data. They encourage students to articulate their hypotheses about phenomena prior to experimentation and reflect on their ideas after experimentation.