State Goal Content
Identify biological problems and questions that can be answered through scientific investigations. Develop questions for investigation from a given topic or problem.1
Lesson Plans
1 Day 1 Lesson Plan2
2 Day 2 Lesson Plan3
Lesson
There are many questions in the world that need answering. A great many of those questions are scientific. A scientific question can pertain to any of the many science disciplines, such as chemistry, physics, astronomy, biology, archaeology….the list goes on and on.
“Why is the sky blue?”
“How does a hydrogen engine work?”
“Do fish have sex?”
Not all questions are scientific questions. Asking someone if they like horses better than dogs is not a scientific question. It is an opinion question. Any question that asks for an opinion is NOT a scientific question.
In this class, we will be dealing with scientific questions regarding biology (the science dealing with the study of living things). You have probably asked yourself many questions concerning biology throughout your life. For example, when you were a child you may have wondered how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly or where human babies come from…not from mommy’s bellybutton!!
Some biological questions can be tested very easily, such as “does the intensity of light affect how well a plant grows”, while other biological questions are much more difficulty to answer, such as “what causes cancer”. Many scientists spend the majority of their life trying to answer one scientific question. They perform scientific investigations in an attempt to obtain the answer to their question.
Scientific questions are tested and very often answered with scientific investigations (also called experiments). A scientific investigation is a process that is carried out to answer a scientific question. You have probably heard about many parts of the scientific method, such as hypothesis, data, and conclusion for example. We will go into more detail concerning the scientific method later. First you must be able to identify a scientific “problem” that can be answered through scientific investigations and develop questions for that given topic or problem.4
Notes from reading:
Unit 1A - Scientific Investigations
1. What types of questions will we be answering in this class?
2. What will we be doing to answer some of these questions?
3. Can all questions be answered easily with an experiment?
4. Write down one scientific question (preferably a biological question) that could be answered easily with a scientific investigation.
5. Write down one scientific question that would not be easily answered with a scientific investigation.
6. What type of question is NOT a scientific question?5
Activities
1. Students will create an experiment using the scientific method comparing two or more products
Anticipatory Set: Commercials comparing products
Students will create a (class / team product): marketing device showing good, better best
Multicultural and/or ESL and/or Bilingual Link: trial and error is universal
Mathematics/Science Link and/or Humanities Link: How can we model graphically the two products?
School-to-Career/Tech Prep Link: Quality v/s cost in a career field. Example: Selling a quality product with inferior batteries6
2. Anticipatory Set: Is brawny the best paper towel?
Students will: conduct individual experiments to determine validity of the premise
Class/team/individual product:
INDIVIDUAL JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT: scientific journal entry detailing the process
HOMELINK: Explain the scientific method to a family member and find out when they use it in their daily lives.7
Worksheet:
“Brawny or Bust”
The purpose of this activity is to introduce you to experimental design and procedure.
1. You have been divided into groups of 3.
2. Each group should have:
o Roll of Brawny
o Roll of 1 Generic Paper Towel Brand
o Roll of 1 Other Paper Towel Brand
o Cup with Water
o Cup of dirt/sand
o Graduated Cylinder
o Beaker
o Watch glass with Syrup
3. How might you set up an experiment, using the materials they were given, to test if Brawny is the best paper towel? After you come up with an idea, call me over to discuss and approve it.
4. Now, write down:
o The problem/question.
o Your hypothesis…which paper towel do you think is best?
o What materials do need?
o What are you going to do to test the towels? (write out steps…1, 2, 3….and what you are going to do in each step.
5. Now perform their experiment.
a. What were your results?
b. Make a table/graph of the results.
6. What could be done to improve the test?
7. Discuss how individuals may use the paper-towels differently and affect the test.
8. What is the difference between the two words subjective and objective? (I will tell you this during our class discussion)8
3. Anticipatory Set: Field trip to Ford plant to outline the process of developing a new vehicle using the scientific method.
Students will create a (class / team product): Create a market research survey for school mates and determine best mode of transportation for teens using scientific method.
Multicultural and/or ESL and/or Bilingual Link: Discuss how the railroad affected Native American Indians and the Chinese.
Mathematics/Science Link and/or Humanities Link: Create a bar graph showing speeds of horse travel, ships, and trains.
School-to-Career/Tech Prep Link: Research a job as a high ranking MARTA official, a Delta official, or a carnival cruise line official.9
4. Anticipatory set: Watch the DVD of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
Students will: Compare and discuss the world with modern transportation versus no modern transportation.
Class/team/individual product: Write a five minute play that shows life today with all modern transportation suddenly cut off and the effects on our society.
INDIVIDUAL JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT: I prefer travel by _____ because…
HOMELINK: Ask a family member if he/she has experienced the birth of a new form of transportation. Have them describe the way the world changed due to that new mode of transportation.10
5. Anticipatory set: Listen to “Whistle why you work’
Students will: Each team will be given supplies and directions to build a Spaghetti tower. Each team will have four jobs and four members. Students will experience scientific method following directions and cooperation. After completion of tower students will record procedure of this anticipatory project.
Class/team/individual product: Each team will be given supplies and directions to build a Spaghetti tower. Each team will have four jobs and four members. Students will experience scientific method following directions and cooperation. After completion of tower students will record procedure of this anticipatory project.
INDIVIDUAL JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT: Search website for articles that relate to scientific method/ Summarize one article, i.e. Scientific method in the medical field.
HOMELINK: Discuss with parent(s) the importance of cooperation, following directions at their job.11
6. Anticipatory Set: Manipulate “Ave Verum Corpus” using the scientific process by three factors, tempo, key, and reversal of forte passages to pianissimo and likewise.
Students will create a (class / team product): Produce written reports with partner stating their process steps and conclusion.
Multicultural and/or ESL and/or Bilingual Link: Discuss Hispanic music popularity in the US. Watch La Bamba, the life story of Ritchie Valens.
Mathematics/Science Link and/or Humanities Link: Graph test grade differences in students who study with music versus students who study in silence.
School-to-Career/Tech Prep Link: Use the scientific process to research CD sales in different genres such as rock, hip hop, jazz, and country.12
7. Anticipatory set: I-Robot show computer model
Students will: Compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of using computer models as opposed to physical models
Class/team/individual product: They will make a chart with the advantages and disadvantages.
INDIVIDUAL JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT: How do you perceive a pilot would feel in a simulated crash
HOMELINK: Find a family member who uses computer models or math models their jobs13
8. Anticipatory Set: “I Robot” clip- state “Spooner uses scientific method all through the movie”
Students will: in groups identify steps of scientific method in “I Robot”
COMPREHENSION:
Identify problem (murder of scientists), collect data (Spooner gets clues), and form hypothesis (Spooner thinks robots have minds)14
9. Anticipatory Set: The teacher has passed 3 things around the room. Pose a scientific question about each one. Can your scientific question be tested? Put a check beside your question if it can be tested.15
10. Activity/Anticipatory Set: What Does it Mean to Do Science?
11. Activity: Why Should You be Scientifically Literate?
Pictures & Graphics
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Animations, Movie Clips & Sounds
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Essential Questions
A woman and her husband have been trying to have a child for 7 years. They have seen many different doctors and gone through many different procedures to try to conceive (get pregnant), but have not been successful. A scientist is currently researching a certain medication that he believes will increase the woman’s chances in becoming pregnant, so she decides to participate in the study (the experiment/scientific investigation) that he is performing.16
What is the scientific question in this particular situation?
Test Items
1. How is a scientific question different from other types of questions?17
a. It is something that every person would be interested in.
b. It is asked by the majority of people on Earth.
c. It has a single answer that never changes.
d. It can be answered through observation and analysis.
2. Which of these is a question that would most likely be asked by a biologist??18
a. How are winds formed in Earth’s atmosphere?
b. What are the characteristics of insects?
c. Which materials are the best conductors of electricity?
d. What processes formed Earth and the other planets?
3. Mara investigated a strain of bacteria often used to decompose oil in oil spills at sea. She placed equal numbers of the bacteria into three different salt solutions: .5%, 1.5%, and 2.5%. She kept all of the solutions in a lighted incubator set at 22 degrees C. After three days, she took the samples from the solutions and counted the number of bacteria in each sample. What question is Mara investigating? ?19
a. Do oil-decomposing bacteria grow well in a warm, lighted environment?
b. Does salt concentration affect the growth of this strain of bacteria?
c. Are these bacteria the best strain to use in cleaning up oil spills at sea?
d. Do bacteria in salt solutions grow best at 22 degrees C?
4. Identify the statement below that can be answered in a scientific way.20
a. Apples are more delicious than pears.
b. Snails are beautiful invertebrates.
c. Diamonds are the most valuable substance on earth.
d. Romaine lettuce is more nutritious than iceberg lettuce.
5. How are scientific questions answered?21
a. By making an educated guess only.
b. Through observation, testing, and analysis.
c. By researching the topic and analyzing experiments of others.
d. Through experimentations only.
Formative Assessments
1. Create a children’s book with illustrations that explains the process of the scientific method. Make sure your book has a cover, title page, and text.22
Journal Reading
Imagine that you've volunteered for an experiment, but when you show up at the lab you discover the researcher wants you to murder an innocent person. You protest, but the researcher firmly states, "The experiment requires that you do it." Would you acquiesce and kill the person?
When asked what they would do in such a situation, almost everyone replies that of course they would refuse to commit murder. But Stanley Milgram's famous obedience experiment, conducted at Yale University in the early 1960s, revealed that this optimistic belief is wrong. If the request is presented in the right way, almost all of us quite obediently become killers.
Milgram told subjects they were participating in an experiment to determine the effect of punishment on learning. One volunteer (who was, in reality, an actor in cahoots with Milgram) would attempt to memorize a series of word pairs. The other volunteer (the real subject) would read out the word pairs and give the learner an electric shock every time he got an answer wrong. The shocks would increase in intensity by fifteen volts with each wrong answer.
The experiment began. The learner started getting some wrong answers, and pretty soon the shocks had reached 120 volts. At this point the learner started crying out, "Hey, this really hurts." At 150 volts the learner screamed in pain and demanded to be let out. Confused, the volunteers turned around and asked the researcher what they should do. He always calmly replied, "The experiment requires that you continue."
Milgram had no interest in the effect of punishment on learning. What he really wanted to see was how long people would keep pressing the shock button before they refused to participate any further. Would they remain obedient to the authority of the researcher up to the point of killing someone?
To Milgram's surprise, even though volunteers could plainly hear the agonized cries of the learner echoing through the walls of the lab from the neighboring room, two-thirds of them continued to press the shock button all the way up to the end of scale, 450 volts, by which time the learner had fallen into an eerie silence, apparently dead. Milgram's subjects sweated and shook, and some laughed hysterically, but they kept pressing the button. Even more disturbingly, when volunteers could neither see nor hear feedback from the learner, compliance with the order to give ever greater shocks was almost 100%.
Milgram later commented, "I would say, on the basis of having observed a thousand people in the experiment and having my own intuition shaped and informed by these experiments, that if a system of death camps were set up in the United States of the sort we had seen in Nazi Germany, one would be able to find sufficient personnel for those camps in any medium-sized American town."23
1. What question was this scientific investigation trying to answer?
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