Persuasive argument: Best car/Document

Pedagogic Rationale

The purpose of this activity is to develop children’s ability to support their conclusions with evidence. The teacher will model, encourage and then scaffold the use of language that supports children in referring to the data they have collected when discussing and/or presenting their results. Children will then have the opportunity to collaborate with peers and explore their use of language by presenting their results in a way that is understandable to others. During this process, the teacher will scaffold language development by offering a range of acceptable alternatives, both discretely through participation in discussion and overtly through the use of talking and writing frames,referring to the language the children have selected themselves and by remodelling and rephrasing as part of the ongoing discussion of results.

Other science-based learning outcomes from a full science investigation include for example, fair testing, accurate measurement, data gathering and handling, presentation of results, selecting and using appropriate resources. As part of a longer science topic, these outcomes can be exploited in full as the investigation progresses or can be used as experiential learning to be drawn on as part of subsequent investigations.

Communication, language and literacy and numeracy links are strong in this activity and teachers might want to develop those in other curriculum areas. In literacy lessons, there is scope for follow-up activities on developing the use of connectives (so, because, but) as part of an explanatory text, such as a recount of the investigation or a non-chronological report about the performance of toy cars. In numeracy, there are opportunities for measuring, recording, data-handling and, particularly for younger children, the comparison of number value in terms of distance and use of the necessary comparative and ordinal language.

Types of Learning

There is scope within this activity for a number of different methods of learning. Here are some examples:

Small group work: Investigation conducted by small groups reporting back to the class.
Whole class dialogue: Discussion of each set of data.
Open-ended questions: Why did this car come first? How do you explain that result?
Peer assessment: Do peers agree with the analysis?
Project work: Linked in with topic work in design and technology, literacy, numeracy.
Enquiry-based learning: Initial presentation to the class can be framed as a problem for them to solve.
Co-enquiry: Children working collaboratively.
Arguing and reasoning: Persuading each other about the results.
Exploring ideas: Developing understanding of key scientific principles.
Case study: The teacher modelling can be through presentation of a fictitious set of data form a previous investigation.

Notes and tips

This type of investigation will need a significant amount of structure for the youngest children with less as they get older and are more used to conducting this kind of investigation independently. Either the children are presented with a clear set of instructions with targeted decisions left open to them or the amount of time given to them to develop their method, test it and then conduct the investigation must be increased. If children are working in groups but are to compare data, then it is suggested that a single method is agreed upon in the first instance and changes are made collectively.

When using a random collection of toy cars, children in Key Stage 2 should be made aware that they may be unable to make this a fair test as as there might be too many the variable factors influencing how far the cars can go. In key stage 2, it may be necessary to select one variable for testing such as, the type of surface travelled over, the height of the ramp, the size of wheels, the load carried, the body shape of the cars, etc.

Teacher's Notes:

Science activity

Ask children to bring in one or more toy cars and begin by discussing which car they think would travel the furthest if placed on a ramp and why. Choose four or five cars and ask the children to put them in order of which they think would come first, second, third etc. make a note of their predictions. Challenge children to suggest how they would test their predictions. They may need access to a limited range of equipment to aid their planning. A planning framework e.g. house or train, may also be helpful.

The children now carry out their investigation and record the results in a table. Depending on the abilities and needs of the children the investigation can offer many opportunities for developing different aspects of investigative work; for example, testing, measuring or recording data. Here the focus is on the feedback session where children consider their results and draw conclusions. An important aspect of investigative work is that children should be able to interrogate their data, talk or write about it and use their results to explain their conclusions.

When children have completed the practical part of the activity provide time for them to create a simple bar graph using the data in their table. This helps children to see the difference more clearly and can make information more visible to other children, if large graph paper is use.

Literacy link

Although ‘persuasive argument’ is an aspect of literacy that has prominence in the upper primary years it is important that children begin to use both scientific knowledge and data to persuade others (and themselves) that their conclusions are appropriate.

In this activity children generate data from their investigation and should use this evidence to support their conclusions. A selected range of openers and connectives can help children to articulate an argument.

• My results show that…
• If we look at the table we can see that…
• The graph shows that…
• I noticed that…
• We can see from the table that the best is…

Offer openers and connectives as part of a large wall display or table-top sheet or card. During the feedback session, when children talk about their investigation and results, ask the children to use specific openers, for example:

‘My results show that…’ in a sentence.