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OER4Schools/Collecting and interpreting information part 2: Difference between revisions

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Notes for additional session
Notes for additional session
=Collecting and Interpreting Data: Part two =
{{activity|stgw| on collecting and interpreting data.|10 }}  You have now collected the data and should be ready to analyse or find solutions to respond to appropriately during the enquiry. Where should you begin and how do you proceed with this section of the enquiry?
The follow are the steps in the scientific method as usually followed in many scientific investigations and enquiries.  '''They are not in the right order'''.  Working in small groups, arrange the steps in the right order by putting the numbers 1-8 next to them.
* Data is analysed.
* ''The investigation is done (using whatever equipment/materials you have chose to use) and data is collected.''
* ''A hypothesis is formed - this is usually a best guess based on what’s already known.''
* Results are communicated.
* A question or a problem is posed.
* Conclusions are reached.
* ''Research is done to find out what is already known about the topic.''
* ''A very detailed step-by-step experimental procedure is designed to test the hypothesis – this is the scientific enquiry or  investigation and must take into account all variables affecting the experiment.''


{{ednote|text=
{{ednote|text=
An enormous amount of valuable, deep and exciting information is available on the Internet, but an enormous amount of total nonsense, falsities, half-truths and unsupported theories is also out there. Your students have to learn to distinguish between the two, but you cannot give them hard-and-fast rules. Everything that comes out of an established publishing source isn't good information, and everything that comes from a personal home page isn't bad information. The kinds of things that students ask may be answerable only by other people, perhaps only by a knowledgeable person other like a teacher, parent, medical specialists, etc.  
 
Here are the steps (in order) in the scientific method as usually followed in many scientific investigations and enquiries:
* A question or a problem is posed.
* ''Research is done to find out what is already known about the topic.''
* ''A hypothesis is formed - this is usually a best guess based on what’s already known.''
* ''A very detailed step-by-step experimental procedure is designed to test the hypothesis – this is the scientific enquiry or  investigation and must take into account all variables affecting the experiment.''
* ''The investigation is done (using whatever equipment/materials you have chose to use) and data is collected.''
* Data is analysed.
* Conclusions are reached.
* Results are communicated.
 
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{{activity|stgw| on collecting data for analysis.|5 }}  After the discussion, assess if the resources that you have prepared so far would be adequate for the students to embark on the data collection process (whether is it in the form of experiment or enquiring through the Internet/asking people). If not, make some changes or consider creating additional worksheets or perhaps a spreadsheet for the students. If you would like your students to make a prediction and/or form a hypothesis, make this clear on your worksheet.  You should make sure that you have included an ICT element in each of your enquiry ideas.
You should observe that the steps are very similar to the EBL steps. The steps in italics should be a particularly helpful reminder to what enquiry activities you have carried out, in the context of a scientific investigation method.  


{{activity|otr|: Video sequence and discussion.|5 }}


Imagine that you are the students who are going through the data collection process.
Before you carry on to analyse your data, discuss these questions:
# What is your ‘best guess’ at this point in time? Why?
# Do you think the data help you to respond to the enquiry? Why?
# How do you know that you can ‘trust’ the data that has been collected? Why?
# What is the best way to make sense of the data so that you are able to find some solutions to the enquiry?
# Thinking back to the videos of the students measuring their height, how might inaccurate results affect their BMI calculation/hypothesis/conclusion?


Watch the following video sequence of some students collecting data for an enquiry into BMI and being healthy (Idea E).  The students have been collecting data independently and the teacher has noticed a problem.
Between this session and the next we would like you to continue to analyse your data and be ready to present your findings to your colleagues during the next session (Follow-up activity Part B) .  You should arrange a time to get together with the other members of your group or alternatively divide up the tasks relating to the analysis and presentation between you now.  You will also have a short time to finalise your presentation at the beginning of the next session .


{{: Video/Judith_body_A06.m4v }}
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{{: Video/Judith_body_A07.m4v }}
Use the following information if required:
{{: Video/Judith_body_A08.m4v }}


Try to anticipate where these types of problems (procedural errors) might occur as you collect data for your 'idea' in the following activity. It is likely that you will need to refine your data collection procedure in a similar way that you have just refined your resources in the previous part of this activity.
The analysis of the data involves responding to the questions above. These questions help you evaluate your guesses, and assess whether the data collected is '''valid '''(ie. whether it can actually answer the enquiry questions) or '''reliable '''(ie. whether the data comes from a rigorous and trustworthy method of data collection cf. the discrepancies in measuring height highlighted in the videos). If you do not think the data fulfills the qualities of validity and reliability, then you should immediately highlight the problem and try to find out why this could have happened. It may be that you need to to rethink or repeat the data collection process. If you are satisfied with the data collected, you can then go ahead to make sense of the data so that you are able to present a solution, or different solutions, to the rest of the participants next week.


{{Background|text =
Remember, to '''ensure that the data collected is reliable'''. It may be necessary to repeat the experiment a number of times. Averages can then be calculated if further processing is needed - for example in the paper airplane enquiry. To ensure that the data is valid, make sure to consider all the possible variables and which ones to control.
As an aside:  Once your students are used to working in the spirit of enquiry you can pose short enquiry problems to be solved for homework or at various stages of a lesson.  For example, the teacher in the above clip might have asked the students to work out a solution to the problem of the measuring tape not starting at the floor with the proviso that the solution should not include measuring Martha again or moving the measuring tape.  The answer of course is to measure the gap between the tape and the floor and add this to Martha's incorrect height measurement. By giving the students a few minutes to discuss the problem in groups of thee or four, they may have come up with this (or perhaps another even better) solution - students can sometimes surprise us with their ingenuity. Once the size of the gap has been worked out, this result can be added to all other measurements carried out using that tape - the students will see this as a worthwhile exercise because it means that they don't have to measure everyone who used that tape again!
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