Explanation Overview Complete

Embed Doc
Copy Link
Readcast
Collections

CommentGo Back

Download

© 2008, University of Michigan

Side Note

Found that having studentsengage in explanation changesor refines their image of science as well as enhancestheir understanding of thenature of science (Bell & Linn,2000). Third, onstructingexplanations can enhance thestudents’ understandings of the science content (Driver,Newton & Osborne, 2000).

SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION

Why Scientific Explanations?

Science education reform efforts call for students to developscientific processes and skills through inquiry (AmericanAssociation for the Advancement of Science, 1993; NationalResearch Council, 1996). One prominent inquiry practice in boththe standards documents and research literature is theconstruction, analysis, and communication of scientificexplanations. We believe that explanation construction should bean important part of science class for three reasons. First,research into scientists’ practices portrays a picture wherescientists construct arguments or explanations including weighingevidence, interpreting text, and evaluating claims (Driver,Newton, & Osborne, 2000). Second, previous research in science education has found that havingstudents engage in explanation changes or refines their image of science as well as enhances theirunderstanding of the nature of science (Bell & Linn, 2000). Third, constructing explanations canenhance the students’ understandings of the science content (Driver, Newton & Osborne, 2000). A deepunderstanding of science content is characterized by the ability to explain phenomena (Barron et. al.1998). Consequently, evaluating students’ explanations can also provide teachers with an opportunityto assess students’ current understanding.Although explanations are often cited as important for classroom science, they are frequently left outof classroom practice (Kuhn, 1993; Newton, 1999). One of our goals in creating this unit was to makestudents’ explanation construction an important part of the instructional sequence. Previous researchhas found that making scientific thinking strategies, like explanation, explicit to students can facilitatestudents’ use and understanding of these strategies (Herrenkohl, Palinscar, DeWater, & Kawasaki,1999; Toth, Klahr& Chen, 2000). One of the ways we hope to help students with explanations is bymaking the conventions (behind explanations and the reasons why explanations are important) clear tostudents. We do this when we first introduce students to explanations (Lesson 6). We then continue tosupport students’ writing of explanations through supports in both the activity sheets and studentreader. Furthermore, we provide suggestions to the teacher about difficulties that students might haveas well as ways to support students with the construction of explanations.

© 2008, University of Michigan

What is a Scientific Explanation?

A scientific explanation is a written or oral response to a question that requires students to analyzedata and interpret that data with regard to scientific knowledge. Our explanation framework includesthree components: claim, evidence, and reasoning. While we break down explanations into these threecomponents for students, our ultimate goal is to help students to create a cohesive explanation inwhich all three components are linked together. Yet we have found that first breaking explanationsdown into the three components can ultimately help students create cohesive explanations. In thefollowing section, we describe the three components of a scientific explanation as well as provide anexample of one student’s explanation to illustrate the different components.

Student Example

Question:

“Write a scientific explanation stating whether you think fat and soap are the samesubstance or different substances.”Student response: “Fat and soap are different substances. Hardness was different for fat and soap.Also, fat dissolves in oil, soap does not dissolve in oil. The fat melts at 24

°

C and soap melts at wayabove 100

°

C. Fat and soap are both white. Even though they are the same colors, they are differentsubstances because they have a lot of other different properties. Different substances have differentproperties.”

Claim

The claim is a testable statement or conclusion that answers the original question. For instance, in thestudent example above the claim is “Fat and soap are different substances.” The claim is the simplestpart of an explanation and often the part students’ find the easiest to include as well as to identifywhen they are critiquing other peoples’ explanations. One of the purposes in focusing on scientificexplanations is to help students include more than a claim in their writing.

Evidence

The evidence is scientific data that supports the student’s claim. This data can come from aninvestigation that students complete or from another source, such as observations, reading material,archived data, or other sources of information. Depending on the claim being made, this data can bequalitative or quantitative. In the student example above, the evidence comes from investigations thestudent conducted, “Hardness was different for fat and soap. Also, fat dissolves in oil, soap does notdissolve in oil. The fat melts at 24

°

C and soap melts at way above 100

°

C. Fat and soap are bothwhite.”

© 2008, University of MichiganThe data needs to be both

appropriate

and

sufficient

to support the claim. When introducing evidenceto middle school students, we suggest discussing

appropriate

data in terms of whether the datasupports the claim. For this question, using the data that soap is used to wash clothes while fat is usedto cook is not appropriate data because students learn in the unit that properties are used todetermine whether two objects are the same or different substances. Consequently, it is also notappropriate to include “volume” or “mass” as evidence, even though they are scientific data. This isbecause volume and mass are not properties so they cannot be used to compare substances. A goodexplanation only uses data that supports the claim in answer to the original question. In this example,students need to use properties, like melting point or solubility, to support their claim.Students should also consider whether or not they have

sufficient

data. When introducing this conceptto middle school students, we suggest discussing

sufficient

data in terms of whether they have enoughdata. During the unit, students learn that using one property will not necessarily tell them if twoobjects are different substances. For instance, two substances might be soluble in water. This is notenough evidence to tell if the substances are the same or different. Instead, students need to include anumber of properties to support their claim.When students are selecting their data to use as evidence, they should consider both whether it isappropriate to support their claim and whether they have enough data to support their claim. We havefound that this can be difficult for students. While they realize that they should include data asevidence, they are not necessarily sure which data to use or how much data to use.

Reasoning

Reasoning is a justification that shows why the data counts as evidence to support the claim andincludes appropriate scientific principles. The reasoning ties in the scientific background knowledge orscientific theory that justifies making the claim and choosing the appropriate evidence. In the studentexample above, the reasoning statement is “…they are different substances because have a lot of otherdifferent properties. Different substances have different properties.” This statement tells why thestudent used color, hardness, solubility and melting point as evidence (i.e. they are properties) andincludes the scientific theory that different substances have different properties to justify using theevidence to support the claim.We have found that students have a difficult time including the entire reasoning component inscientific explanations. Often students simply make a general link between the claim and evidence. Forexample, students may say, “Since fat and soap have different densities and melting points, they aredifferent substances.” In this example, the reasoning supporting the link between claim and evidenceis not explicit. You want to help students learn to include the scientific background knowledge that

of 00

Leave a Comment