They Did the Lab. Now What?

They Did the Lab. Now What?
This month we look at how to teach our scientists to construct scientific explanations, just in time for Science and Engineering Fair season! This is one of the 8 Science and Engineering Practices. The full text of this practice is “constructing explanations and designing solutions in 6-8 builds on K-5 experiences and progresses to include constructing explanations and designing solutions supported by multiple sources of evidence consistent with scientific knowledge, principles and theories”.			https://www.wevideo.com/view/999783272
How often do students fail to connect the lab with the science behind it? Constructing scientific explanations will reduce the size of this speed bump in our science classes.
	If we want to mold scientifically literate, critical thinkers, this is the key. For students to construct evidence based explanations, they must understand how to distinguish between evidence that supports their claim and evidence that does not. They have to determine validity and reliability of evidence. Are these not skills we want in our voting citizens? If we want to show how science supports all the other disciplines, again, this is the key. In order to construct their conclusions, students must use mathematical computations to analyze and interpret their data. They must understand the components of a strong explanation, including a claim, evidence, reasoning, and possibly a rebuttal. They must know how to cite sources and make connections between scientific texts and their own experiences.
Our science classes should be places where students get to apply the skills they are learning in their other classes in order to explain their world.
	There is A LOT out there on Claim, Evidence, Reasoning (CER) writing. You have probably seen the “My Dad is an Alien” and the Sham Wow activities already. These are great places to start, but if you are ready for a more in depth look, look no further than Drs. Joseph Krajcik and Katherine McNeill. They are the creators of the framework and have published books, websites, and articles on this very skill. The site, www.argumentationtoolkit.org has several strong activities including supportive and appropriate evidence sorts, reasoning sorts, videos both for teachers and for students on the components and an incredibly helpful reasoning tool to assist student in connecting their evidence to their claims. If you want more from Drs. Joseph Krajcik and Katherine McNeill, here is a Lab Out Loud podcast all on CER writing: https://laboutloud.com/2015/04/episode-127-claim-evidence-reasoning/ Here is a journal article published by Drs. Joseph Krajcik and Katherine McNeill that I found very helpful in understanding the framework when I was beginning to include it in my science students’ lab analyses.  http://www.katherinelmcneill.com/uploads/1/6/8/7/1687518/mcneillkrajcik_nsta_inquiry_2008.pdf There are other helpful resources, such as the one linked below, that help students organize their thinking into a scientific explanation. http://georgiascienceteacher.org/Resources/Documents/eObservations/Linked%20Files/Evidence-Based%20Writing%20in%20Science.docx Lately, in our 8th grade science classes at Wiltsey, we have been building students’ understanding of inheritance of traits. We are using Wisconsin fast plants, students own life experiences and data sets of human pedigrees in order for students to collect evidence from multiple sources to support their initial claims. This is from the IQWST curriculum and is well scaffolded in the curriculum to help students build an understanding of how to complete scientific explanations, even if they have never learned this skill before. For those who are familiar with the CER framework, they can look for the most appropriate evidence and ensure their writing reflects this work. Explaining their results of labs, research, etc. is paramount to retaining scientific knowledge, but also gives students a voice to share their learning and their analysis. We can support students in building their awareness of their natural world, and in so doing, teach them to communicate and evaluate evidence based claims. Stay Curious, Sara Yeh