Stage 1: Desired Results

Scientific Processes and Measurement

Pacing: 

Stage 1 Desired Results

Established Goals:

Measuring, collecting, analyzing and interpreting data and the communication of information are foundational to science education.

Transfer

Students will be able to independently use their learning to….

Meaning

Understandings

Students will understand…

• It is necessary to follow precisely a complex multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks; analyze the specific results based on explanations in the text. (RST.11-12.3.) 

• It is necessary to introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that logically sequences the claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence. (WHST.11-12.1)

• How to write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/experiments, or technical processes. (WHST.11-12.2)

• The use of units is a way to understand problems and to guide the solution of multi-step problems; choose and interpret units consistently in formulas; choose and interpret the scale and the origin in graphs and data displays. (HSN-Q.A.1)

• It is necessary to choose a level of accuracy appropriate to limitations on measurement when reporting quantities. (HSN-Q.A.3)

Essential Questions

Students will keep considering…

• How can an investigation be planned and conducted to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence, and in the design: decide on types, how much, and accuracy of data needed to produce reliable measurements and consider limitations on the precision of the data (e.g., number of trials, cost, risk, time), and refine the design accordingly? (SEP 3).

• How can mathematical representations of phenomena be used to describe explanations?  (SEP 5).

• How can mathematical representations of phenomena or design solutions be used  to describe and/or support claims and/or explanations? (SEP #5).

• How can scientific reasoning be applied to link evidence to the claims to assess the extent to which the reasoning and data support the explanation or conclusion? (SEP #6).

• Why and how is empirical evidence is needed to identify patterns? (CCC - Patterns).

• How can empirical evidence be used to differentiate between cause and correlation and make claims about specific causes and effects.  (CCC-Cause & Effect).

• How can one use algebraic thinking to examine scientific data and predict the effect of a change in one variable on another (e.g., linear growth vs. exponential growth). (CCC-Scale, Proportion, and Quantity).

Acquisition

Students will know…

• The safety precautions within a lab environment
  

• the difference between precision and accuracy.
• Significant from insignificant experimental outcomes
• A claim is a statement answer to a scientific question
• Evidence includes scientific data and/or research gathered.
• Reasoning explains evidence with scientific law/theory/principles that support the claim.
• An experiment is a controlled situation created to collect scientific evidence by observing what happens.
• A procedure describes the methods used to collect evidence in an experiment.
• Only two variables should change in a controlled experiment: independent and dependent variables.
• An independent variable is a manipulated variable and is graphed on the x-axis.
• A dependent variable is the responding, observed, or measured variable and is plotted on the y-axis of a graph.
• Physics is the study of energy and its interaction with matter.
• Matter is essentially “stuff”-has mass and takes up space.
  

Students will be skilled at…

• Record data using the International System (SI) units

• Make measurements with accuracy and precision

• Represent small or large numbers using scientific notation;

• Use dimensional analysis and conversion factors to convert units of measurement

• Identify independent and dependent variables in an experiment

• Evaluate data and make inferences from data represented graphically, and communicate valid conclusions supported by the data

• Generating and using graphs of data to determine relationships between variables and determine rate of change

• Drawing the best-fit line for a collection of data points.