Alaska Science
Key Element B4

A student who meets the content standard should understand that personal integrity, skepticism, openness to new ideas, creativity, collaborative effort, and logical reasoning are all aspects of scientific inquiry.

Performance Standard Level 2, Ages 8–10

A student who meets the content standard should understand that personal integrity, skepticism, openness to new ideas, creativity, collaborative effort, and logical reasoning are all aspects of scientific inquiry.

Sample Assessment Ideas

• Students work in groups in a bridge-building competition. The structure that holds the most weight is the winner.

• Students work in groups to design and carry out an investigation to examine the insulating qualities of fur.

Standards Cross-References
( Alaska Department of Education & Early Development Standards)

National Science Education Standards

Use data to construct a reasonable explanation. This aspect of the standard emphasizes the students’ thinking as they use data to formulate explanations. Even at the earliest grade levels, students should learn what constitutes evidence and judge the merits or strength of the data and information that will be used to make explanations. After students propose an explanation, they will appeal to the knowledge and evidence they obtained to support their explanations. Students should check their explanations against scientific knowledge, experiences, and observations of others. (Page 122)

Communicate scientific procedures and explanations. With practice, students should become competent at communicating experimental methods, following instructions, describing observations, summarizing the results of other groups, and telling other students about investigations and explanations. (Page 148)

Benchmarks

Scientists do not pay much attention to claims about how something they know about works unless the claims are backed up with evidence that can be confirmed and with a logical argument. (Page 11)

Offer reasons for their findings and consider reasons suggested by others. (Page 286)