What Is a Research Question?

During a recent professional development session among middle level science teachers, we pondered the criteria for an excellent research question. Powerful ideas emerged from our collective thinking.

Investigating Heating and Cooling Rates

An excellent research question:

• clearly identifies variables that will be tested
• helps visualize/identify equipment and materials needed to perform tests
• provides information about data that can be collected during the test
• is related to background information and observations
• reveals thinking about causes and effects
• is realistic, real world, and testable
• uses specific content vocabulary

There was a palpable feeling of accomplishment and pride at the end of our collaborative session, as we celebrated our continued progress in developing a common vision for authentic and meaningful science learning in our school district.

I know that professional development days can often cause inconvenience for parents, but providing quality collaboration time for teachers is a worthy investment in our children's education. Thank you for indulging us in these rich and rewarding professional experiences.

Questions about the Moon

It was a simple query: "What questions do you have about the Moon?" A group of savvy and intelligent 8th graders (my students) pondered this question and came up with the following comprehensive list:

NASA: A New Map of the Moon

Physical Characteristics and Features

• How big is the Moon compared to the Earth?
• What is the diameter of the Moon?
• What is the Moon’s mass?
• Is the Moon smaller than Pluto?
• Why is the Moon a sphere?
• How far away is the Moon?
• Why are there craters on the Moon?
• How do craters on the Moon form?
• What is the largest crater on the Moon?
• Why is the Moon gray/white?
• What is the Moon’s temperature?
• What is the temperature difference between light and dark sides of the Moon?
• Does the Moon have a moon?
• Does the Moon have an atmosphere?
• What is the Moon’s atmosphere like?
• Is there oxygen on the Moon?
• Why isn’t there oxygen on the Moon?
• Does the Moon have weather?
• Does the Moon have wind?
• How much gravity is on the Moon?
• Does the Moon have a magnetic field?
• How strong is the Moon’s magnetic field?
• How high can you jump on the Moon?
• Can you make a fire on the Moon?
• Can you cook on the Moon?

Orbital Data

• Does the Moon rotate?
• How long does it take for the Moon to rotate?
• Does the Moon revolve around the Earth?
• How long does it take for the Moon to revolve around Earth?
• Why does the Moon orbit the Earth?
• Why do we only see one side of the Moon?
• Why are there phases of the Moon?

Lunar Composition

• What is inside the Moon?
• What is the Moon made of?
• What type of rock is the Moon made of?
• Does the Moon have layers like the Earth?
• How many layers does the Moon have?
• What’s in the Moon’s core?
• Is the core of the Moon the same as the core of the Earth?
• Does the Moon have landforms?
• Does the Moon have natural disasters (like, earthquakes, etc.)?
• Are there any fossils on the Moon?
• Is there life on the Moon?
• Does the Moon have water?
• Does the Moon have tectonic plates?
• Does the Moon have earthquakes?
• Is there lava on the Moon?
• How old is the Moon?

Lunar Formation

• How was the Moon formed?
• How did the Moon get there?
• How has the Moon changed over time?

Lunar Exploration

• How many people have landed on the Moon?
• Who else landed on the Moon?
• How many missions have we had to the Moon?
• How long does it take to get to the Moon?
• How much fuel does it take to visit the Moon?
• Where are the flags on the Moon?
• What have we accomplished by landing on the Moon?
• When did we first discover the Moon?
• Who hit the golf ball on the Moon?
• Will the Moon have livable conditions on the future?

Philosophical Questions

• What is the Moon’s purpose?
• What if we had no Moon?
• Who owns the Moon?
• Why is it called “Moon”?

---

Question for educators, boards of education, policy makers, textbook publishers, et al.:

• Do your standards, curriculum, and educational materials reflect the innate curiosity and learning desires of our students?

Reflections — Fossils 2

In 2010, I was nominated for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching—a prestigious honor for math and science teachers in the United States. The rigorous application process provided me with an excellent opportunity to reflect deeply on my classroom practice. Although I was not selected as a finalist, I value my experience in the process. Over the next three blog posts, I would like to share some of what I wrote for my application, which centered around a geologic unit on fossils.

The PAEMST application requires a written narrative on several dimensions of outstanding teaching, including the following areas:

• Dimension 1: Mastery of Science Content
• Dimension 2: Instructional Methods and Strategies
• Dimension 3: Effective Use of Student Assessments

In this entry, I would like to share Dimension 2, Instructional Methods and Strategies...

---

I employ a variety of instructional approaches to help students understand fossils...

Rock cycle video and diagram

Students watch a locally-produced video about the Rock Cycle, which identifies the three main rock families, explains how they were formed, and shows many local examples from each family. Students collaborate after the video to complete a blank rock cycle diagram with terms about rock products and the geologic processes that created them.

Rock identification lab

Students engage in a hands-on process of rock identification to learn the various physical properties and characteristics involved in identifying rocks by family and name. As part of the identification process, students must provide convincing evidence to go along with their identification.

Law of Superposition activity

Students infer the relative ages of rock layers in a vertical rock profile by examining and discussing various clues. They discover that, in general, the oldest rocks and rock layers are at the bottom of a rock profile—the Law of Superposition.

Traces of Tracks activity

Students analyze an image of fossilized animal tracks and reconstruct the story of an encounter between predator and prey. Students collaborate to infer the story from the trace fossil evidence.

Finding Clues to Rock Layers activity

Students analyze fossil clues and data contained in rock layers to determine the relative ages of the layers as well as the physical environment in which the organisms lived. In general, the deeper the rock layer the older the fossils buried within. Additionally, various geologic processes, such as weathering and erosion, can expose fossil layers at the Earth’s surface. 

Fossil ID Cards

Over the course of several days, students “interview” various fossils to infer the life story of once-living, but now fossilized, organisms, and create a detailed fossil identification card for each fossil interviewed. This hands-on, inquiry-based lab allows students to fully engage in the process of science by observing fossil specimens; asking key questions; gathering evidence from physical clues and inference; using a variety of scientific resources such as fossil identification books, posters, and diagrams; learning to avoid bias by following the fossil evidence; sharing data and ideas through peer collaboration; and hypothesizing and theorizing about the past geologic environments in which the fossil lived. Students display their fossil cards on large posters for the rest of the school to enjoy. 

Examples of interview questions include:

• What are the fossil’s physical characteristics? 
• How did this fossil move? 
• What did it eat? 
• In what environment or habitat did this fossil live? 
• What was its niche or purpose in life?

---

I identify and build on students’ prior knowledge, and incorporate this knowledge in my general teaching strategies...

Image courtesy of MorgueFile

I strive to ensure that my science lessons build logically from point A to point B and that common themes and ideas are continuously woven throughout each unit as well as throughout the school year. My goal is to promote the transfer of understanding from one lesson to another, not just one-time memorization to be forgotten quickly. I regularly ask discussion questions that help activate prior knowledge, that tie different lessons together, and that help students make logical interconnections among various ideas and concepts.

• “Does anybody have a fossil collection? Tell us a little bit about your fossils.”
• “Have you ever been to a museum and seen a fossil dinosaur on display? Where did all those bones come from?”
• “Remember when we watched the rock cycle video? In which rock family would you most likely expect to find fossils? Why?”
• “You can find fossil sea shells up in the Rocky Mountains. How can that be? What do these fossils tell us about Earth history?”
• “Suppose you find a fossil of an X. What story can this fossil tell you? What are some clues you can look for to help explain this organism’s life?”
• “Here is an example fossil. What characteristics do you see? What kind of organism was this? What did it eat? Where did it live? How do you know?”

In the video I produced for my application, I used many of the types of questions outlined above to help students learn how to interview fossils in order to uncover their life story. My goal was for students to develop a non-biased technique for uncovering clues and evidence contained in fossils. For our fossil lessons, it is most important that students learn to “listen” to the fossil evidence with an open mind rather than just try to quickly name the fossil.

The video shows the first day of our fossil lessons, where we worked together as a group to prepare for our in-depth fossil interviews. The following three days after the video, students interviewed fossils, gathered information and evidence from the fossils and various classroom resources, and created detailed fossil identification cards with the inferred life story of each fossil.

---

I use instructional strategies and techniques to meet the learning needs of all students, challenging those with stronger knowledge while ensuring learning for less accomplished students...

I utilize a variety of strategies to differentiate for the diverse learning needs of my students, and a few of these are outlined below:

• Creating hands-on, inquiry-based, authentic learning experiences that encourage students to think critically and develop explanations based on evidence
• Encouraging peer collaboration: students working together, talking science together, sharing data and ideas together
• Accommodating for different fossil identification skill levels: 
• Inferring basic to advanced information from fossil clues at increasing levels of descriptive detail
• Interpreting fossil structures from simple (bones, teeth, shells) to complex (type of bone, purpose of tooth)
• Working with incomplete vs. complete fossils (incomplete fossils are much more challenging to interpret than complete fossils)
• Drawing upon multiple intelligences skills and multiple learning modalities: drawing/visualization, writing, questioning, spatial manipulation, kinesthetic/hands-on observations
• Using effective questioning: engaging students (individually and within small lab table groups) with highly effective questions to encourage deeper meaning

---

References

• Boulder Valley School District, 2009 Middle Level Earth and Space Science Curriculum Essentials Document, Earth and Space Science Essential Questions
• Ganse, J., Geology Unit, 8th Grade Earth Science, Fossil and Geologic Time
• Marshak, S., Earth: Portrait of a Planet (Third Edition), W.W. Norton & Company, 2008
• Murck, B. and Skinner, B., Geology Today: Understanding Our Planet, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999
• USGS Education, Schoolyard Geology, Fossils

Reflections — Fossils 1

In 2010, I was nominated for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching—a prestigious honor for math and science teachers in the United States. The rigorous application process provided me with an excellent opportunity to reflect deeply on my classroom practice. Although I was not selected as a finalist, I value my experience in the process. Over the next three blog posts, I would like to share some of what I wrote for my application, which centered around a geologic unit on fossils.

The PAEMST application requires a written narrative on several dimensions of outstanding teaching, including the following areas:

• Dimension 1: Mastery of Science Content
• Dimension 2: Instructional Methods and Strategies
• Dimension 3: Effective Use of Student Assessments

In this entry, I would like to share Dimension 1, Mastery of Science Content...

---

There are three essential questions to guide the study of fossils:

1. What are fossils? 
2. How do fossils form? 
3. What can fossils tell us about past life? 

Planet Earth is billions of years old, and during its long history a diversity of life has evolved. Fossils are the remains of living organisms preserved in the geologic record through burial, and they provide valuable evidence for this long Earth history. Students need fundamental understanding of the geologic processes that led to fossil formation, the types of fossils that form as a result, and the types of clues that are found within the fossils that can be used to interpret past history.

Image courtesy of MorgueFile

Three main types of fossils—body, trace, and replacement—form over time periods of thousands to millions of years. Each type of fossil has unique physical characteristics and clues to help us infer past Earth history. Because fossils are found mainly within sedimentary rocks, it is essential that students understand the constructive and destructive processes involved in sedimentary rock formation, which ultimately lead to the preservation of once-living organisms.

Information about the environments in which fossilized organisms lived can be inferred from fossil clues when students rigorously apply the process of science. Making careful, detailed observations using different scientific tools (such as hand lenses and microscopes), asking a variety of probing “interview” questions about each fossil, referencing fossil identification guides and charts, and collaborating with other student scientists are all key to interpreting fossil clues in a non-biased, open-minded manner to unlock the information about their past environments.

Fossil evidence helps us infer geologic, environmental, and biological changes through time. By examining fossils and reconstructing the story they tell, students fine tune their “process of science” skills and develop a better understanding of the 3.5+ billion-year life history of planet Earth. Specifically, students engage in making detailed observations of fossils and asking questions in order to infer information about the geologic past.Students will apply what they learned during fossil identification to a future plate tectonics research project. The skills and knowledge developed in this lesson will be applied to understanding spatial and temporal changes of Earth’s tectonic plates—fossil evidence gives us clues that Earth’s crustal plates move and that continents were once connected.

This particular lesson on fossils contributes to the “Six Facets of Understanding”—a lesson planning tool I use to develop deep, engaging learning activities—as outlined below: 

• Explanation: Students address the following conceptual questions: 1) What are fossils? 2) What the different types of fossils? 3) How do fossils form? 4) How can we infer information about past environments from examining fossils?
• Interpretation: Students observe and “interview” fossils to determine the physical characteristics of organisms and infer the past environment in which they lived.
• Perspective: Students make connections between life and conditions on planet Earth today and life and conditions during geologic eras and periods of the past.
• Self-Knowledge: Students may inquire about or begin to assemble their own fossil collection, or seek opportunities to learn more about fossils (for example, museum visits).
• Empathy: Students consider why geologists study fossils and develop a better understanding about the difficulties involved in fossil interpretation and reconstruction.
• Application: Students engage as fossil scientists and create their own fossil identification cards that show physical characteristics and inferred information about past environments.

---

A variety of misconceptions and misunderstandings about fossils can arise in the science classroom. Here is a summary:

All rocks contain fossils.

Fossils are found mainly in sedimentary rocks. For an organism to become a fossil, a protective layer of sediment, such as sand or mud, must quickly cover up its remains. Otherwise, the remains are likely to be eaten, to decompose, or to be destroyed before fossilization can occur. Probing questions to ask students: 

• Why don’t we find fossils inside rocks like granite, basalt, gneiss, or schist?
• Why do we find fossils inside rocks like sandstone, shale, and slate?

Fossils are actual pieces of dead animals and plants, rather than preserved impressions of the original organisms. 

During the fossilization process, the living remains of organisms decay and are replaced by minerals, leaving behind an impression of the original organism. Exceptions to this include insects that are fully preserved in fossilized tree sap (amber). However, most organisms are preserved in an altered state during the fossilization process. Probing questions to ask students: 

• Petrified wood, a fossil, is not wood anymore. What happened to the wood?
• If you have a fossil shell or leaf imprint, what happened to the original organism?

All living organisms leave behind fossils, and the fossil record is complete. 

Hard structures such as bones, teeth, shells, and exoskeletons are more likely to be preserved during the fossilization process than soft body materials such as tissues, organs, and/or hair/feathers, which decay more readily. It is estimated that only 1% to 3% of organisms have fossilized and/or been described. While our fossil record keeps growing as we explore more and more of Earth’s crust, we will never have a 100% fossil record because not all species leave behind fossils and not all fossils can ever be found or recovered. Probing questions to ask students: 

• Why do scientists keep looking for fossils, even today?
• Why don’t we find fully preserved, fully intact organisms (like dinosaurs) buried in the ground? Why do we usually just find skeletons, bones, teeth, etc.?
• When an organism dies, what parts decay and what parts are preserved, and why? 

Geologic time is short, and fossils are relatively young. 

Geologic time is vast. The fossilization process, which occurs during the sedimentary rock formation process, can take thousands and millions of years to occur. Various dating techniques allow scientists to accurately determine the ages of rocks and fossils. Fossils are thousands, millions, and in some cases, billions of years old. Probing questions to ask students: 

• How do you think fossilized seashells got to the top of the Rocky Mountains?
• What does finding fossilized seashells in the Rocky Mountains tell us about the past?

Few species have gone extinct during Earth’s history. 

More than 99% of all species (which number in the millions) that ever lived on planet Earth have gone extinct. The fossil record leaves us evidence of species that are no longer alive and what the environments in which they lived were like. Probing questions to ask students: 

• Have you ever seen an organism like this (show pictures of extinct organisms)?
• What happened to these organisms?

---

References

• Boulder Valley School District, 2009 Middle Level Earth and Space Science Curriculum Essentials Document, Earth and Space Science Essential Questions
• Ganse, J., Geology Unit, 8th Grade Earth Science, Fossil and Geologic Time
• Marshak, S., Earth: Portrait of a Planet (Third Edition), W.W. Norton & Company, 2008
• Murck, B. and Skinner, B., Geology Today: Understanding Our Planet, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999
• USGS Education, Schoolyard Geology, Fossils

Oceanography Questions

Image Credit: Pics4Learning

I frame our science learning in terms of questions—learning goals, laboratory research questions, daily warm-up questions, one-on-one student conversations, etc. Questions stimulate thinking and conversation; the more questions, the better. I am famously known for never giving students "the right answer," but always asking them that one additional question. Of course, my favorite question is, "Why?"  :)

Throughout the school year, I will share some of the questions we ponder as we engage in the process of science. Here is a sampling of some of the "big idea" questions that I pose during our study of physical oceanography:

Water Cycle

• How is water distributed on planet Earth?
• How does water cycle through the Earth system?

Ocean Structure and Composition

• What are the structures and physical characteristics of Earth's oceans?
• How far does each ocean zone extend?
• What are the temperatures like in each ocean zone?
• How does color change as you descend deeper in the ocean?
• How far below the surface does light penetrate?
• How does pressure change with ocean depth?
• How do scientists create maps of the ocean floor?
• What is the composition of ocean water?
• What is the average salinity of the world's oceans?
• What are the factors that cause changes in salinity?
• How do scientists measure salinity?
• What factors affect the density of ocean water?

Ocean Circulation

• How does density affect ocean circulation?
• How and why does ocean water circulate?
• How do scientists measure ocean circulation?
• What types of ocean waves occur?
• What are the causes of different types of ocean waves?
• How do tsunami waves form?
• How do scientists track tsunami waves and inform the public?
• How do tidal waves work?

---

For more information about effective questioning:

Ivan Hannel, Insufficient Questioning, Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 91, No. 3, November 2009, pp. 65-69. In this article, author Ivan Hannel discusses how highly effective questioning can keep students interested and improve their learning.

Meteorology Questions

Image Credit: Pics4Learning

I frame our science learning in terms of questions—learning goals, laboratory research questions, daily warm-up questions, one-on-one student conversations, etc. Questions stimulate thinking and conversation; the more questions, the better. I am famously known for never giving students "the right answer," but always asking them that one additional question. Of course, my favorite question is, "Why?"  :)

Throughout the school year, I will share some of the questions we ponder as we engage in the process of science. Here is a sampling of some of the "big idea" questions that I pose during our study of meteorology:

Atmospheric Structure

• What are the features and characteristics of Earth's atmosphere?
• What is the composition of Earth's atmosphere?

Heat Transfer

• How is heat transferred in Earths's atmosphere?
• What are the three types of heat transfer in Earth's atmosphere, and how does each work?
• What is Earth's energy budget?

Weather Maps

• How do scientists measure, record, and analyze various types of weather data?
• How do we measure air temperature?
• How do we measure dewpoint and humidity?
• How do we measure atmospheric pressure?
• How do we measure wind direction and wind speed?
• How do we draw isobars?
• What are fronts and how do we locate them on a weather map?

Types of Weather

• What causes weather?
• How are clouds formed?
• How do scientists forecast the weather?
• How do different types of severe weather form?
• How do scientists monitor severe weather? 
• How do we prepare for and stay safe during severe weather?

Climate Change

• How do scientists study global climate and climate change?
• What are the factors affecting climate change over time?
• What is the greenhouse effect and how does it work?
• How do we measure "parts per million?"
• How does carbon cycle through the Earth system over time?
• What is our current understanding of climate change?

---

For more information about effective questioning:

Ivan Hannel, Insufficient Questioning, Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 91, No. 3, November 2009, pp. 65-69. In this article, author Ivan Hannel discusses how highly effective questioning can keep students interested and improve their learning.