Developing understanding in scientific enquiry

By Anne Goldsworthy, Rod Watson, Valerie Wood Robinson

published by ASE, Hatfield 2000

Scientific enquiry is essentially a thinking process. Pupils need to develop thinking strategies to guide their practical activity and to make the most of the data they have collected. Our evidence suggests that pupils do not pick up the skills they need simply by meeting them in practical lessons. They need to be taught how to go about their investigative work.

There are many ways to collect scientific evidence about the world around us. Our research found that fair tests were carried out more frequently than other types of enquiry and that many teachers would have liked more variety. Different types of scientific enquiry require different strategies for planning and evaluating.

Different types of scientific enquiry

Fair Test - observing and exploring relationships between variables or factors. Changing one factor and observing or measuring the effect, whilst keeping other factors the same.

E.g. How does the temperature of water affect the rate at which sugar dissolves?

Which paper towel soaks up most water?

Pattern seeking - observing and recording natural phenomena, or carrying out surveys, where variables cannot readily be controlled, and then seeking patterns in the data.

E.g. Do people with longer legs jump higher?

Do dandelions in the shade have longer leaves than those in the light?

Classifying and identifying - either arranging a range of objects or events into manageable sets, or recognising objects and events as members of particular sets and allocating names to them.

E.g. How can we group these invertebrates?

Which things conduct electricity and which do not?

What is this substance?

Exploring - making careful observations of objects or events, or making a series of observations over time.

E.g. How does frog-spawn develop over time?

What happens when different liquids are added together?

Making things or developing systems - designing, testing and adapting an artefact or system.

E.g. Can you design a pressure-pad switch for a burglar alarm?

Can you develop a technique for finding the dry mass of an apple?

Investigating models - Trying out explanations to see whether they work or make sense.

E.g. Does the oxidation or phlogiston model best explain how magnesium burns?

Different types of enquiry on woodlice

Questions about woodlice / Types of enquiry possible
Where do woodlice live? / Pattern seeking, reference
What is it about their habitat that woodlice prefer? / Fair testing
What are the different kinds of woodlice? / Identifying, classifying and reference
Woodlice huddle together to keep warm. Is this true? / Testing an explanation
Are the same kinds of woodlice found all over Britain? / Reference, pattern seeking using secondary sources of data
What do woodlice eat? / Exploration, reference, pattern seeking, fair testing
How can you keep a lot of woodlice in school? / Making things