Take a Dip: Water in Our Lives Project
Table of Contents Project Information Lesson Plans Implementation Assistance
 
Activity 5: Draw your Conclusions
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Overview
After all the participating classes have submitted their findings to the Project Data area, the students will read the submissions, draw conclusions, and prepare and submit one short Final Report explaining what they have learned from the project. The report does not have to be long; one or two paragraphs is sufficient.

The teacher also has the option of sending one final report from the whole class to the project Discussion Area at the completion of this project, particularly if the class members all made the same hypothesis. Selected Final Reports will then be posted in the Student Gallery.

Objectives
Students will:
  • evaluate and modify their own hypotheses.
  • develop problem-solving, decision-making and inquiry skills reflected by interpreting and analyzing data, drawing conclusions, and communicating results.
  • develop an understanding of patterns, relationships, and functions and to represent and explain Real-World phenomena.
  • integrate science as a tool for problem-solving in science and as a means of expressing and/or modeling scientific theories.

Time
Approximately one 45 minute class period.

Materials
  • Computers with Internet access
    Note: students will need access to the Discussion Area either individually or in groups. If the classroom has one computer, the teacher can make printouts of the messages.
  • Notebooks and Pencils
  • Printable Student Worksheet (Optional)

Teacher Preparation
  • All students should draft Final Reports individually or in small groups however only one class final report should be posted to the Discussion Area. Each student / group can contribute to a section or you can select the one that best meets the criteria listed in the section below.

Assessment Suggestions
The students' Final Reports can be used for assessment (e.g. Are the answers complete, accurate, and do they show an understanding of the lesson concepts?).

Procedure


NOTE: The following instructions also appear in the Project Instructions section of this web site.
Notebook Top Left Corner  Activity 5: Draw your Conclusions Notebook Top Right Corner
  All participating schools are required to submit one Final Report to the Project Discussion Area. Basically, this report should explain what the students have learned from the project. In addition, it will be necessary to revisit your original hypotheses and decide whether or not the information you determined from the previous activities supports or does not support the hypotheses.

  1. Check the Project Data so you can compare the types of macroinvertebrates found by the different schools from around the world.
    See Project Instructions for when the Verified Data will be published.
     
  2. Restate your hypotheses. Lead a whole class discussion centering on whether or not the data collected and macroinvertebrates found by the other schools posted in the Project Data section supported or did not support their hypotheses.
     
  3. Students should return to their groups and write their final reports. Students may write their reports in groups or as individuals. The following is a suggested format:
    1. Introductory Paragraph - basic information such as:
      • School name, location, and grade and/or subject area
    2. Main Body
      • Name, location, and a description of where you conducted the water sampling tests (please include all the information you wrote from the General Observations).
      • The water sampling tests you conducted (i.e. optional tests).
      • Your original hypotheses.
    3. Conclusions
      • Did your findings prove or disprove your hypotheses? Give your reasons.
      • How did the types of organisms you found compare with those found by others?
      • What conclusions did you draw?
      • How did the new information change your thinking?
    4. Additional questions to consider (Optional)
      • What was something new that you learned?
      • What would you do differently next time?
         
  4. Submit your Final Report to the Final Reports conference area of the Discussion Area. Please include your school name, location, grade and subject area in the Final Report. In the subject line, please write "Final Report from Your School" (example: Final Report from Kennedy Middle School).
     
  5. In the last couple of weeks of the project, the project leader will select the best or most interesting reports from the Discussion Area and post those reports as separate web pages in the Student Gallery section on this project web site.
 
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