During the third week of school (second week of Sept.) we started our first unit called “Thinking like an Engineer”. We spent time learning the difference between an Observation and an Inference and how to apply it in science activities. We used a Claim, Evidence, Reasoning (CER) guided notes to write down observations, and use our observation as evidence to back up a scientific claim. This was used in our cube activity that we did in class where students had to guess what was missing on the blank side of a cube. After modeling level zero for the students we then moved on to level one which was a slightly harder cube. We observed patterns and gathered evidence to explain why our claim is true. Next week we will be working with groups learning how collaboration helps engineers build a circuit using a D-battery, copper wires, and a light bulb. During this activity students will be writing down any observations they have and make any changes to their design. Knowing how to make proper observations and inferences will help students with this next activity.
We also spend a day setting up our ISN (interactive science notebook) with a table of contents, titles, and page numbers. It is very important our students are well organized because these notebooks will serve as an important tool in keeping all of our work, notes, and used as a study tool. If your child does not have a notebook for this class yet, please help them get one as we already started using them this week and will next week.
Students: Here is a copy of my reasoning section for the CER on cube Level 1. Please make sure your reasoning sounds smilier to mine. You need to include the location of the number, letter, or roman numeral (top right, bottom left, middle, etc.) as well as the color too. Make sure you refer back to the patterns we observed and why they support the claim. It helps to talk about one pattern or one number/letter at a time just as we did in class.
My evidence supports my claim because we observed many different patterns. Based on the order of a cube, the middle number is a red 6 because of the numbers 1 ,2, 3, 4,and 5 being visible. We also noticed that odd middle numbers were a blue color and the even middle numbers were a red color which is why 6 should be red. Another pattern we observed were that the black roman numerals that were located on the bottom left corner, all seemed to match the middle number. Therefore if the middle number is a 6 then the roman numeral should be a black VI. On all the faces of the cube at the top right were orange letters that were in alphabetical order starting at B, C, D, E, and F. According to the alphabetical pattern, the letter A seems to be missing. The letter A should be placed at the top right and it should be orange according to the rest of the cube/pattern. On the top left of the cube, all the faces have a black number that is divisible by 2. It starts with 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32. That pattern shows that 2×2=4, 2×4=8, 2×8=16, 2×16=32, therefore 2×32=64. A black colored 64 should be at the top left of the cube because it fits in with the pattern that we observed. Lastly, we have a missing green number at the bottom right of the cube based on the pattern on all the other faces. One of the patterns supports that the missing green number should be a 58. The pattern observed states that the top left number (64) – the middle number (6) = the bottom right (58).
