STEM Investigation and Communication Skills

Example

Find out: Does our school's tap water come from a lake, a river or a well, and how is it treated?

1. Sources: the town's water report and a call to the water plant.
2. Record each fact with its source; note where the report and the plant differ.
3. Report what is known, what is uncertain, and what you would ask next.

Example

Test: Which insulation keeps a cup of hot water warm longest?

1. Same: identical cups, the same starting temperature, the same room, a thermometer read at the same times.
2. Change: only the wrap — wool, foil, paper, none.
3. Record readings in a table; repeat twice; graph temperature against time. The slowest fall is the best insulator.

Example

Design a model bridge from craft sticks that holds the most mass before bending.

1. Criteria: mass held before the deck bends past a mark. Constraints: thirty sticks, glue, a fixed span.
2. Build, load with washers, record; note where it bent first.
3. Improve: add a triangle brace where it bent; test again; keep the change if it held more.

Example

Match the safety step to the symbol: flame, corrosive, irritant, environmental.

1. Flame: keep it well away from flames and heaters.
2. Corrosive: gloves on, and not a drop on your skin. Irritant: wash your hands the moment you finish.
3. Environmental: it goes in the marked container, never the drain.

Example

Share the insulation results with classmates, and with a family choosing a winter coat.

1. Classmates: the temperature–time graph with four lines; the words insulator, thermal energy, variable.
2. Family: one sentence — which wrap kept heat longest — and why (trapped air slows heat leaving).
3. Both: the one thing you would change to make the test fairer.

Summary

• Evidence, not opinion; source beside every fact.
• One variable; repeat; graph.
• Criteria, constraints; load; brace where it bent.
• Read the symbol; act on it.
• Graph for peers; one sentence with a why for the public.