How can we explain this?  Do our explanations agree?

The bulk of the class’ time and energy is spent in this space - using practices to make sense of a puzzling phenomenon and question. Kids should be doing the heavy lifting of figuring out. Productive talk is the glue that connects practices to one another, practices to Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) and crosscutting concepts and ideas (CCC), and also the way that the class makes sense of what they are figuring out. Students use science and engineering practices (SEP) such as designing investigations, analyzing data, modeling, and argumentation to progress in their explanation.

Building Understanding Discussion

It’s important that each student tries individually to attempt to make sense of the phenomenon. It is important for the teacher to help students get their thinking down on the page, regardless of if it’s right or wrong. The idea is to push students to come up with a mechanistic explanation about what is going on. Diversity in our sense-making ideas here is very productive! Teachers can press students to go deeper if they think they know the answer. When students try to use their model in a new context, they bring some competing ideas to the table. The students then go public with their ideas. This helps create the sense that we are all not on the same page that they do not have consensus, and that there is stuff here that needs to be figured out. 

1. Invite a student or group of students to share their current explanatory model or design solution with the class

1. • 1. 1. • What are some of the key components of your model/solution?

           • How does this model explain the evidence we have so far about this phenomenon?

           • How does this solution fit the criteria we identified for a possible solution?

           • Is there any evidence you know of that’s not accounted for in your model/solution?

           • Did you consider other models/solutions? If so, what were they?

           • For the second group and after: How is your model/solution different from or similar to ones presented earlier?

2. Invite a second student or group to share their model/solution, and then invite response and critique

   • 1. 1. • What questions do you have for this group about their model/solution?

           • Can you clarify __________ aspect of your model/solution?

           • So let me see if I understand this aspect of your model/solution here. Are you saying...?

           • What do the rest of you think of that idea?

           • Is there anything you can add to this model/solution?

           • How well does this model fit the evidence we’ve gathered so far?

           • How well does this solution meet the criteria we identified for the solution?

           • What could the group do to improve the model/solution?

3. Ask students about how the models/solutions compare, in terms of similarities and differences

   • 1. 1. • How does group A’s solution connect to group B’s?

           • How does these models/solutions help us make sense of and contribute to our question at hand?

           • What might a model/solution look like that puts the things we think best reflects all the evidence we have so far?

           • Is there any evidence that we have that none of our models/solutions can account for?

4. Invite the class to consider what might need to be revised in models/solutions, based on the models seen and the evidence so far