Science / Year 7 / Science Inquiry Skills / Evaluating

Curriculum content descriptions

Reflect on scientific investigations including evaluating the quality of the data collected, and identifying improvements (ACSIS131)

Elaborations
  • discussing investigation methods with others to share ideas about the quality of the inquiry process
  • identifying and considering indicators of the quality of the data when analysing results
  • suggesting improvements to inquiry methods based on experience
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
  • Numeracy Numeracy
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
ScOT terms

Evaluation,  Experiments,  Data collection

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Ramping it up, Egyptian pyramid style

How did the ancient Egyptians move and lift huge stones during construction of the pyramids? Secondary student Angus Atkinson designed an experiment to find out how the lives of pyramid workers could have been made easier. See how as you watch this video, which he entered in the 2013 Sleek Geeks Eureka Science Schools Prize.

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For good measure

If you had to measure the rain level for the whole globe, how would you go about it so you could have as accurate a reading as possible? Rain gauges are great for measuring rain in small areas, but why might they not be as good for measuring large areas? Watch this video to see how the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) ...

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Friction: Friend or foe?

What part does the force of friction play in our everyday lives? Friction can be an advantage (friend) or a problem (foe). Join interviewer Doug Traction and professors Static, Slide, Rolling and Fluid at the National Tribology Research Centre as they have forceful fun investigating friction. This video won a prize in the ...

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Water: learn it for life! - year 7 science

This PDF unit of work is one of a series of resources accessible by searching the list in the series.It includes two teaching and learning sequences: 'Water journeys' focuses on the water cycle, and 'Pure water' focuses on the processes and people involved in creating and managing drinkable water. It provides Australian ...

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Work sample Year 7 Science: Water purification

This work sample demonstrates evidence of student learning in relation to aspects of the achievement standards for Year 7 Science. The primary purpose for the work sample is to demonstrate the standard, so the focus is on what is evident in the sample not how it was created. The sample is an authentic representation of ...

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Daniel O'Doherty

This 5 minute video segment from Catalyst describes how a school student conducted his own scientific investigation. Daniel O'Doherty was intrigued to find out what was the carbon impact of travel to and from school each day, and what could be done to reduce this impact. His project won the 2008 Action Against Climate Change ...

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Secondary science: models and simulations

These seven learning activities, which focus on 'models and simulations' using a variety of tools (software) and devices (hardware), illustrate the ways in which content, pedagogy and technology can be successfully and effectively integrated in order to promote learning. In the activities, teachers assist students to interpret, ...

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Secondary science: visual representations

These seven learning activities, which focus on 'visual representations' using a variety of tools (software) and devices (hardware), illustrate the ways in which content, pedagogy and technology can be successfully and effectively integrated in order to promote learning. In the activities, teachers assist students to understand ...

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Experimentals: Do different things fall faster?

Want to find out what happens when you drop a watermelon and an apple from the top of a building? In this clip, Bernie Hobbs and Ruben Meerman, investigate whether the mass of an object influences how fast it falls. Bernie and Ruben ride the 'Giant Drop' at Dreamworld, drop a watermelon and apple from an eighth floor balcony, ...

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Dam threatens ancient lungfish

Explore the issues around the construction of the Traveston Dam in Queensland with Professor Jean Joss and former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie. In this 2006 news report they outline arguments for and against the construction of the dam and how it would affect one of the few remaining homes of a 150-million- year-old ...

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Four Corners: Ecological effects of bushfires

Did you know that Australia is the most flammable continent on Earth? Watch this clip to discover how bushfires impact natural ecosystems, and how the increasing global threat of bushfires may affect Australia. Australian scientists explain the ecological consequences of fire and a US expert describes his concerns for the future.

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Experimentals: Name these mystery objects

Compete in a game show against characters Einstein and Pythagoras to identify three different mystery objects. Each of the objects is the end product of a science demonstration. Compare your ideas and predictions with the host Bernie Hobbs's identification of the objects and her explanation of the science behind them.

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Electronically tagging sea stars

This is a colour video clip of marine scientist Dr Miles Lamare describing the process used to electronically tag sea stars. The clip shows Dr Lamare, from a New Zealand university, being interviewed. It also shows footage of Dr Lamare in the laboratory attaching a tag to a sea star; as well as sea stars moving in water ...

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Why tag a starfish?

This is a colour video clip in which biologist Dr Miles Lamare of the University of Otago talks about the advantages of using electronic tags to study sea stars. He explains how the tags operate, the data they provide and how unusual it is for them to be used on invertebrates. Sequences showing tags on sea stars and other ...

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Fruitcake mining

This is an activity sheet providing instructions for a simulated mining experiment using pieces of fruitcake. Students use various tools to remove different fruits, each representing different minerals, from a piece of fruitcake which represents the mine site. They are then required to rehabilitate the 'mine site'. The ...

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What is an ecologist?

This is a colour video clip in which marine ecologist Associate Professor Stephen Wing of the University of Otago talks about the work of ecologists. He gives an overview of the types of questions that are investigated by ecologists and explains why he enjoys his work. Photographs of marine organisms and ecologists at work ...

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BTN: Living on the International Space Station

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Catalyst: Aboriginal fire knowledge reduces greenhouse gases

Come on an eye-opening trip to Western Arnhem Land in northern Australia to find out how Aboriginal fire-control techniques are used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by thousands of tonnes.On the trip you will also find out how exploding ping-pong balls are used to create low greenhouse gas firebreaks at the right time ...

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Catalyst: Supercapacitors: new battery technology

Discover how nanotechnology is contributing to the creation of new, improved batteries that may soon be used in all our mobile phones and portable music devices - even in cars and trams. Catalyst's Tanya Ha looks at how traditional batteries produce electricity and how their efficiency may be increased by tiny devices known ...

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Four Corners: Megafires

Are we approaching the 'age of megafires'? It might sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, but some scientists believe there is cause for concern. Watch this clip to find out how bushfires as we know them are changing. Discover why.