CER PLANNING SHEET

It can be difficult to organize our thoughts when writing a CER. This document is
a place for you to begin organizing your thoughts and ideas before you put them
into your final document for submission. Think about each part as a separate
section that will come together as a whole at the end.

To use this document, make a copy of it. Once you have finished this document,
you can clean up your ideas and copy and paste them into the CER assignment
to be submitted. You should use this document along with “CER Sentence
Starters and Helpful Hints.”
CLAIM
Claim: Your claim is simply a one-sentence response that answers the focus question. You are
making a statement that you will support with evidence and explain with reasoning.

EVIDENCE

Evidence 1.1: What is your research question? In other words, what relationship were you
looking for between your Independent and Dependent Variables? You should be able to do this
in 1-2 sentences.

Evidence 1.2: Briefly describe your experimental procedures. What would somebody need to
know to understand how you collected your data? You should be able to complete this section in
2-3 sentences.
Evidence 2.1: What are the most important data points (pieces of data) that support your
claim? If you found the average of your trials, generally this is the best data to report. You
should be able to complete this section in 2-3 sentences.

Evidence 2.2: What is the relationship between your Independent and Dependent Variable that
you found in your investigation? Relationships generally can be written, “As the IV
increases/decreases, my DV increases/decreases.” You should be able to complete this section
in 1 sentence.

REASONING Remember to SEL your reasoning!

State the main scientific principle(s) or idea(s): What are the scientific ideas that we have
talked about in class that explain WHY your evidence is what it is? Look through your notes and
vocabulary sections. You should be able to complete this section in one sentence.

Explain the main scientific principle(s) or idea(s): You should, in your own words, define the
scientific principle(s) or idea(s) and then narrate how these ideas explain your evidence. You
should be able to complete this section in 2-4 sentences.

Link the main scientific principle(s) or idea(s) back to your claim: This is your closing
sentence. It is meant to bring your ideas to a close and link your reasoning back to your claim.
One way to think about it is simply a retelling of the relationship between your Independent and
dependent variable. You should be able to complete this section in 1 sentence.