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Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

Implementation

Create your own copy of this module’s learning log found here to help document your sensemaking during this experience.

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PRE-ASSESSMENT

Take a minute to review the continuum below. Identify where you would assess your current implementation of students planning and carrying out investigations and record it on your copy of the learning log.

SEP #3: Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

1	2	3	4
Students do not design or conduct investigations.	Students conduct investigations, but these opportunities are typically teacher-driven. Students do not make decisions about experimental variables or investigational methods (e.g. number of trials).	Students design or conduct investigations to gather data. Students make decisions about experimental variables, controls, or investigational methods (e.g. number of trials).	Students design and conduct investigations to gather data. Students make decisions about experimental variables, controls and investigational methods (e.g. number of trials).

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KEEP EQUITY AT THE CENTER

How will you ensure ALL students are engaging in the practice? How will you know if students are or are not engaging in the practice?
How will you ensure student interest and identity are being incorporated into the lesson?
In what ways will you demonstrate in the lesson an affirming attitude for all students?
How will you develop constructive ways of centering my students’ lived experiences and sustaining their community practices?
How will you demonstrate appreciation of multiple and diverse perspectives throughout the lesson?

The Science and Engineering Practices, by their very nature of fostering collaboration, promote an environment where different perspectives and voices are sought out and honored. We’ll be revisiting this idea as we examine classroom examples. Here are a few examples of things you will be encouraged to consider:

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PRE-ASSESSMENT

LEARNING OBJECTIVE	IF YES...	IF NO...
I can identify the elements of Planning and Carrying Out Investigations (PCOI) that I want to use as a problem of practice.	Go to Launch: Do - Stop and Jot	Begin at Launch: Think About #1
I can recognize instructional strategies/tools/routines that align to elements of PCOI.	Go to Learn: Explore the Resources	Go to Learn: Do - Classroom Video
I can select appropriate instructional strategies/tools/ routines that help students engage with elements of PCOI.	Go to Learn: Figure Out/Plan	Go to Learn: Explore the Resources
I can plan for the implementation of a selected instructional strategy/tool/routine for PCOI in my context.	Go to Learn: Collect and Record	Go to Learn: Figure Out/Plan
I can collect data around and analyze the implementation of a selected strategy/tool/routine for PCOI.	Go to Reflect: Collaborate and Reflect	Go to Learn: Collect and Record

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Think About #1

Determine the Learning Outcome for Students

The Science and Engineering Practice of Planning and Carrying Out Investigations intentionally puts students at the center of making decisions in designing and conducting investigations to gather data. What the practice looks like at each grade band scales in complexity as students develop and refine their skills in this area.

Review the appropriate grade-band for Planning and Carrying Out Investigations (pages 7-8) of Appendix F: Science & Engineering Practices.
What element are you trying to elicit student evidence for in this learning opportunity?

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Think About #2 - Set your learning intention

Is there a certain strategy that you are struggling to incorporate to support students in planning and carrying out investigations? You might take a look at common problems of practice around this SEP include listed below. Keep your learning intention in mind as you explore additional ideas in this module.

My students are not able to complete the investigation at home.

My students do not understand how to produce data to serve as evidence to support their questions and claims.

The investigations in my curriculum are more “cookbook” rather than helping students figure something out about the system under study.

The investigations in my curriculum are more like activities, without a clear link to knowledge building about big science ideas.

I am having difficulty utilizing this strategy in a face-to-face, hybrid, or remote learning setting.

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Do - Stop and Jot

Take a minute to jot down a current challenge you have in supporting students in planning and carrying out investigations. Which element of this SEP will you focus your reflection on?

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Do - Classroom Video

Videos are a great way to get a glimpse into classrooms to see the practice in action.

Watch one of the exemplar videos from an appropriate grade level of your choice. Start and end times are suggestions, but you may watch beyond the recommended pieces for more context:

K-5 Classroom
MS Classroom: Watch from ~6:00 - 16:00
HS Classroom: Planning: Watch from ~ 4:30 - 21:00

Carrying Out: Watch from ~ 21:00 - end

** Note your observations in the SCIENCE INSTRUCTION OBSERVATION FORM section of your learning log.

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Adapting the learning environment

Resource: Keep Teaching Science, p. 25

As you just observed face-to-face classrooms in the previous videos, shifting to a blended or hybrid environment changes how instructional strategies are facilitated.

Take a look at the Keep Teaching Science example here. Planning and Carrying out Investigations can reimagined for the distance learning space with the use of online tools and a little creativity!

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Do- Topics to explore

Now that you have seen PCOI play out in a classroom video, let’s take the problem of practice you identified earlier and make a plan for your classroom.

The Topics to Explore box to the right features various facets of planning and carrying out investigations. Click on ONE of the topics that best aligns to your problem of practice and explore the strategies and digitals tools you might choose to include in your plan.

Generate Ideas for Investigations

Make Observations

Facilitate Collaboration

Student Conferences

Collect Data

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Generating Ideas for Investigations

K-12 strategies, Protocols, and Scaffolds	Digital Tools and Supports
Investigation Planning Chart Sample Investigation Planning Chart Creating Opportunities for Students to Reason Together Claim-Evidence-Reasoning Task Prompts may also provide scaffolding for specific parts of the practice How Can I Test It?	Use shared spaces for small groups to record ideas using collaborative tools such as Padlet, Jamboard, and Google docs/slides/draw. Concept Maps to Organize Thinking: Google Drawings, Popplet, Coggle.it, Evernote, Trello

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Make Observations

K-12 strategies, Protocols, and Scaffolds	Digital Tools and Supports
My Design Drawing Task Prompts may also provide scaffolding for specific parts of the practice	Mobile Devices to Record Videos Seesaw Digital microscopes

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Facilitate Collaboration

K-12 strategies, Protocols, and Scaffolds	Digital Tools and Supports
Teacher moves: Facilitate Student Reasoning and Collaboration Why Use Collaborative Learning	Use shared spaces for small groups to record ideas using collaborative tools such as Padlet, Jamboard, and Google docs/slides/draw.

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Student Conferences

K-12 strategies, Protocols, and Scaffolds	Digital Tools and Supports
Science Talk Protocol (1st grade example)	Zoom/Google Meet 3 Ways to Use Video Conferencing with Students Learning Remotely Google Doc comments

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Collecting Data

K-12 strategies, Protocols, and Scaffolds	Digital Tools and Supports
Evaluating Observing/Measurement Task Prompts may also provide scaffolding for specific parts of the practice	Google Forms Probeware: Use data analysis hardware and software to use during a lab to collect and analyze data. Logger Pro Logger Lite Graphical Analysis PocketLab

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Science Notebooks

K-12 strategies, Protocols, and Scaffolds	Digital Tools and Supports
Science Notebooks: Planning Investigations Framing with a Focus Question Carrying Out Investigations Collecting and Analyzing Data Sketching for Observation	Seesaw (Learning Journal) Science Notebooks with Seesaw Seesaw as a Science Lab Notebook Microsoft OneNote Class Notebook MS One Note Class Notebook: A digital binder that will change the way you teach Notability Google Slides Arduino Science Journal

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Figure Out / Plan

Select one of the strategies from the topic you explored and think about how to incorporate it into an upcoming unit. �
Create a plan for how you will implement this strategy in the upcoming unit. Record those steps on your learning log.

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Collect and Record Data

Determine what data you will collect to know whether this strategy was successful in your classroom. (Student use of scaffolds, engagement with graphic organizers, student perception data)�
Determine how the data will be collected. Consider if it will be collected by you, an instructional coach, student survey, etc.�
Determine how often implementation data will be collected. (Every class period, daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.)

How will the data be used to drive further instruction?�

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Collaborate and Reflect

Share your implementation data with a grade-level and/or content area team or PLC/CTT.

Discuss:

What do these data say?
How will these data impact instruction in the future?
What went well?
What challenges did you and/or your students encounter?

How might you address those challenges in the future?

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Self-Reflection

As a final entry in your learning log, reflect on the following:

Based on your new learning and implementation, how will you shift future instruction?
Looking back at your self-assessment. How does your new solution support your movement to the next level?