Teacher's Guide

Experimenting with Experiments?

 Scenario

 The cafeteria workers are determining which snacks and drinks will be placed in the vending machines. They have asked you to design an investigation. You have observed the people in your school prefer a particular snack and drink. Can you develop a hypothesis to test this observation and select the appropriate variables to support your hypothesis?

Task and Product

 Working in small groups, you will research various components of a well-designed experiment. You will develop a hypothesis and select variables to test a science experiment. You will conduct the snack and drink experiment and make a recommendation to the cafeteria workers.

Hypothesis for Experiment & Variables selected and Identified

Outline for experiment

Assessments

Your work in the group will be assessed with this group rubric:

Your Hypotheses will be assessed using the Hypotheses rubric:

Your Variables will be assessed using the Variables rubric:

Your Experiment will be assessed using the Experiment Rubric.

Question

Essential Question:

 How does conducting multiple experiments and selecting an appropriate variable help you prove or disprove a hypothesis?


Subsidiary questions:
  • What is the scientific method and how does it work?
  • What happens if my hypothesis proves to be false?
  • What are the components of a well designed investigation?
  • What are the possible variables for this experiment?
  • What types of variables are there and how are they manipulated?
  • Why would you evaluate similar investigations on the same hypothesis?

Gather and Sort

Gather information about Scientific Inquiry from a variety of sources.

Sort your research findings using a graphic organizer or note cards. Be sure to
avoid plagiarism and keep track of your resources for a bibliography.

Organize

Analyze your completed project.

  • Have you adequately completed the Hypothesis?
  • Have you selected the most appropriate variables for your Hypothesis?
  • How are your variables related to your Hypothesis?
  • Will your method test the chosen variable?

Synthesize your findings by

  • What relationship must occur between Variables and Hypothesis?
  • How will you incorporate the most important aspects of your research into
    similar investigations?
  • What conclusions can you make about preferred snacks?

Evaluate the effectiveness of your research for the task.

  • Have you gathered sufficient details about the Scientific Inquiry on your
    Investigation chart in order to write your Hypothesis?
  • Do the Variables you selected make sense with your Hypothesis?
  • Is your research reflected in the Hypothesis?

Conclusion

Each group will turn in their completed Hypothesis and Variables and Experiment Design to the teacher and present the outline of an experiment to the class. Under the guidance and approval of your parent/teacher conduct the experiment in home room.

Reflection and/or Extension Activities:
 As a culminating activity each student will prepare a Constructed Response answering the following questions:

The Hypothesis I created was ______________?
The Variables I selected were ______________?
The conclusion of the experiment with the snack and drink recommendation.
Remember to support your responses with the information you have gained from your research and that of the other groups.