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Task 1: Practices of Science
Task 1: Practices of Science
There are a total of 8 practices of science. These are things that scientists do regularly as they experiment and investigate their questions and hypotheses (like you did in the Laboratory Experience).
You will learn about all 8 practices, and practice each of them :)
The first practice is to ask questions.
Look at this image of a polluted river, and ask 3 questions about it. Write your answers down in a Google Doc, this will be the first item on your checkpoint.
The second practice is to develop and use models.
In science, a model is a small-scale representation of an event, a place, a theory, etc. that helps us understand it better.
A common example is a globe because it models the Earth.
Another example is a food web because it models the interactions of the animals in an ecosystem.
To practice using models, you are going to create a food chain using this website.
Pick one of the food chains you finished and write down the order of the organisms in it.
The third practice is to plan and carry out investigations.
As long as you did the first Laboratory Experience (Task 5), you have had experience doing this.
Write down one thing you learned from planning and carrying out your own investigation.
The fourth practice is to analyze and interpret data.
Look at the graph below, and answer the following questions:
What data is the graph representing?
Which app had the highest average hours in 2019?
Which app had the highest average hours in 2020?
How much has the average time spent on TikTok increased in one year?
Which app is the most popular? Which one is the least popular?
The fifth practice is to use math.
Most of the time, math in environmental science involves counting, and then performing statistical analysis on it. But don't worry, we aren't going to do statistics.
There is no task for this practice :)
The sixth practice is to form explanations.
Scientists use the evidence they can see to form an explanation for their observations. Look at the image to the left, and write an explanation for what happened.
The seventh practice is to form arguments from evidence.
Scientists have to use evidence to explain what they are observing.
Look at the image of the robbery to the right. Find 3 pieces of evidence that justify how you know the robber in the image committed the crime.
The eighth practice is to obtain, evaluate, and communicate information.
This is one of the most important parts of science, if we don't communicate our ideas, they can't benefit anyone.
Find (obtain) one article (news, magazine, etc.) about something that interests you (it can be anything). Read the article and decide (evaluate) what the most important pieces of information in it are. Finally, share (communicate) the link and your summary in your checkpoint.
Checkpoint 1:
Checkpoint 1:
For each of the scientific practices above, you should have at least one thing written down to show that you completed it.
At the end of your document, add a paragraph describing what you learned about scientists. You should have a topic sentence, 2-3 body sentences, and a conclusion sentence. Make sure to use proper grammar and spelling.
Save your document, and share it with Mrs. Reseigh through Slate.
This checkpoint helps prepare you for SCI.3 and SCI.4 competencies, in this unit and in the next unit.
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