Science Notebooks in Middle School 15
Step-by-step procedures. Middle school students need to develop
skills for writing sequential procedures. For example, in the Chemical
Interactions Course, students write a procedure to answer these
questions.➤ Is there a limit to the amount of substance that will dissolve in a certain
amount of liquid?
➤ If so, is the amount that will dissolve the same for all substances?Students need to recall what they know about the materials, develop a
procedure for accurately measuring the amount of a substance that is
added to the water, and agree on a defi nition of “saturated.” To check
a procedure for errors or omissions, students can trade notebooks and
attempt to follow another student’s instructions to complete the task.
Experimental design. Some work with materials requires a structured
experimental plan. In the Planetary Science Course, students pursue
this focus question.➤ Are Moon craters the result of volcanoes or impacts?
Students plan an experiment to determine what aff ects the size and
shape of craters on the Moon. They use information they gathered
during the open exploration of craters made in fl our to develop
a strategy for evaluating the eff ect of changing the variable of a
projectile’s height or mass. Each lab group agrees on which variable
they will change and then designs a sound experimental procedure that
they can refer to during the active investigation.