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Students are taken on an imaginary fossil hunt and form hypotheses about the identity of the creature they discover. Students revise their hypotheses as new evidence is found.
Life Science, Nature and Process of Science
Correspondence to the Next Generation Science Standards is indicated in parentheses after each relevant concept. See our conceptual framework for details.
- Scientists strive to test their ideas with evidence from the natural world; a hallmark of science is exposing ideas to testing. (P3, P4, P6, P7, NOS2)
- Scientific knowledge is open to question and revision as new ideas surface and new evidence is discovered. (P6, NOS3)
- The process of science involves observation, exploration, testing, communication, and application.
- Scientists test their ideas by predicting what they would expect to observe if their idea were true and then seeing if that prediction is correct. (P4, P6)
- Scientists can test ideas about events and processes long past, very distant, and not directly observable.
- Scientists often try to generate multiple explanations for what they observe. (P7)
- Different scientists may interpret the same data in different ways. (P7)
- Hypotheses are potential explanations for what we observe in the natural world. (P6)
- Hypotheses are usually inspired and informed by previous research and/or observations. They are not guesses. (P6)
- Scientists usually work collaboratively.