Our August 28 blog entry focused on developing concepts related to the methods in and nature of science. In that post, titled “Put On a Happy Face!,” the inspiration came from scientific investigation of the relationship between suggestive language and involuntary contractions of facial muscles. The goals of that post were to help teachers assist students in (a) distinguishing between questions that lend themselves to scientific investigations and those that do not; (b) identifying methods one could use to investigate a good question scientifically; and (c) using evidence to support one’s logical argument.

Those goals closely align with Content Standard A of the National Science Education Standards (NSES), Science as Inquiry. That standard is divided into two themes: abilities to do scientific inquiry and understandings about scientific inquiry (p. 143). In the real-world, we cannot separate these two themes cleanly. That is, one can only conduct scientific inquiry if one has some understanding about it.

So how do middle grades teachers help students meet this necessarily complex set of ideas without oversimplifying it? Perhaps the best approach is to be transparent and explicit with students: explain your goal of helping students acquire proficiency in both themes through a series of activities across the academic year, each highlighting a portion of the themes, while remaining strongly connected to all the other portions of both themes.

The first theme, abilities to do scientific inquiry, has eight subthemes (listed below from pages 145 and 148 of NSES). The second theme, understandings about scientific inquiry, has seven subthemes relating to the nature of science as manifested in the subthemes of abilities to do scientific inquiry:

Identify questions that can be answered through scientific investigations. (See blog post Put On a Happy Face!)

Design and conduct a scientific investigation.

Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data.

Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence.

Think critically and logically to make the relationships between evidence and explanations.

Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and predictions.

Communicate scientific procedures and explanations.

Use mathematics in all aspects of inquiry.

Pages 146-147 of NSES provide an excellent case study, using an investigation of pendulums, which addresses these subthemes. Physical science seems to lend itself well to these themes. But, teachers need to facilitate student proficiency with these subthemes in the disciplines of earth and life sciences too. ScienceDaily published a news story on August 21, 2009, titled Evolution Of The Human Appendix: A Biological ‘Remnant’ No More,  which can be integrated into a unit on body systems while providing opportunity to develop the content standards listed above in a life science context.

How to Turn This News Event into an Inquiry-Based, Standards-Related Science Lesson

Ask students if any of them have had appendicitis. What is it? Where is the human appendix? (You can show students the graphic that accompanies the news story.) What does it do? Allow every volunteering and some nonvolunteering students to contribute, while refraining from providing corrective feedback.

What kind of questions can students generate related to the human appendix? Which questions lend themselves to scientific investigation?

After students choose a good question, ask them how it can be tested. Students need to think big here, with the understanding we may not have the capacity to carry out their experiment, but if we had the resources, as research institutions do, the experiment could be conducted. Students can conduct some research to learn what is known. They could dissect a rat to observe an appendix, and a frog to observe lack of an appendix.

Given their proposed experimental design and the idea of dissection, students should explain how, and using what tools, particular kinds of data would be collected, and how it would be organized. For example, students may propose that several individuals of several species be dissected and observed for an appendix. What kinds of tools do they need? Make sure you have some tools on hand so students can touch them, if not use them. Can they design a data table for recording the observations? Does it accommodate the number of species as well as the individuals of each species?

Based on research or initial observation of the single frog and rat, students should describe the appearance, size, texture, mass, volume, lengths and/or context of the appendix. They can speculate (explain) on what might be adaptive about those observations. Based on their research on the function of the appendix, students can predict what kinds of species might lack an appendix because the species’ lifestyle suggests they might not need one. Or how might the size of the appendix vary with the different classes of animals? Students can draw and label illustrations (model) of the observed appendix in the dissected rat or lack of appendix in the frog.

Students use knowledge gained in research and observation here. What makes their predictions from the step above reasonable?

Read the news story to students or have them read it. Can they articulate the alternative explanations regarding the evolution of the appendix? What is the value in scientists proposing alternative explanations? What is the danger in scientists doing this?

Students should recognize the ways they have already done or seen this: in their experimental design, in their model drawing, in the story they’ve read.

How have students used, or could they use, math in their experimental design, observations or data analysis? Why would using math in these ways improve the quality of their science?

Here’s a short, current background information article from Scientific American, What is the function of the human appendix? Did it once have a purpose that has since been lost?

Here are additional resources from the National Science Digital Library Middle School Portal: Organ Systems: Functions, Diversity and Uniformity; Nature of Science - Scientific Method; and Methods of Science.

We Need Your Help

We want and need your ideas, suggestions, and observations. What would you like to know more about? What questions have your students asked? Do you have a favorite activity that you would like to share? We invite you to share with us and other readers by posting your comments. Please check back each week for our newest post or download the RSS feed for this blog. You can also request email notification when new content is posted (see right navigation bar).

Let us know what you think and tell us how we can serve you better. We want your feedback on all of the NSDL Middle School Portal science publications. Email us at msp@msteacher.org