Handouts are available below

Big Idea

Today, I want to share the 3 things I’m doing to teach CER (Claim Evidence Reasoning) this year. 

Long story short, the 3 things that are working for me in teaching CER is scaffolding using prompts and sentence starters, applying these prompts through everyday, informal examples, and practicing using short and simple investigation questions.

My 3 Parts to Teaching CER in 2022

When scaffolding CER for students, I use the following 3 prompts: (1) for claims, I tell students to give me the simple answer to the research question of the lab; (2) for evidence, I tell students to start by using “according to my data” and then to summarize the important data that supports their answer and to include measurements and numbers; and, (3) for reasoning, I tell students that anything that requires the word “because” falls under reasoning.

I write down these prompts everywhere when students first learn to use the CER framework: in labs, on test questions, and even on the board during class discussion questions. I don’t think you can scaffold this enough. Yes, student work may feel formulaic at first. But, students need structure when learning a new way of doing something – just like the 5 paragraph essay provides structure in essay writing in English. 

We take these prompts and use them to analyze and work through CER examples. For example, I ask students, “which part of the body is the most painful to get stung by a bee?” and then tell them about the scientist who performed an experiment to answer that question. This scientist’s claim is that the nostrils and upper lip are the most painful places to get stung by a bee and, according to his data, pain scale results for both regions always ranked highest. For reasoning, this scientist suggested that because lips and nostrils have more nerve endings due to the fact that these areas are openings to the body, this also makes bee stings more painful in these areas. This year, I also used this worksheet, which gets students to underline, circle, and bracket out the claim, evidence and reasoning for 3 CER statements. Each statement is an argument for who the most successful movie director is. One statement claims Spielberg is the most successful, another says James Cameron, while another claims the Russo brothers. Refer to the video to see a completed version (in highlighter).

Finally, I have students write CER statements through simple lab activities that have very clear investigation questions and that provide data that is straightforward to analyze. I performed the beaker lab I mentioned in my previous episode, which has students determine whether beakers of the same size have the same mass. I’ve also had students use a hot plate, a beaker of water, and a thermometer to determine whether doubling the power setting on the hot plate will double how quickly the water heats up. Students can easily record and analyze data and provide a logical explanation for the results to this question. This year, I also had students do a volume lab to practice CER too, but I’ll talk about that in a future episode.

That’s how I’m doing it this year and it’s still a work in progress. How do you do it? Please email me a strategy or two – I’m interested to know. 

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk science again soon.

Resources

Handout(s): CER Starter Kit MS Edition

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Handouts are available below

Big Idea

Here’s a lab I’ve done with my students for the past 2 years that not only has them practice using a balance to find the mass of objects, it also gets students to practice lab skills like data analysis and drawing conclusions using the CER (Claim Evidence and Reasoning) framework. Best of all, this lab doesn’t need anything elaborate or complicated.

Simple Lab Activity: Beaker Mass vs…

My lab activity is made up of 2 big questions I want students to investigate and answer: (1) do beakers of the same volume have the same mass, and (2) do beakers of increasing volume also increase in mass by the same proportions?

For the first question, students use a balance to find the mass of three 100ml beakers that all look the same. Students find the mass of these beakers and record the mass on a table like this. To answer the first question, students just have to look across and see if the masses are identical. Not surprisingly, the masses are almost always off. I get students to write a CER statement about it and to provide some reasons to explain the differences. For example, some students mention that perhaps the beakers are dirty or chipped, which would add or take away mass from beakers that would otherwise be the same mass.

For the second question, students use a balance to find the mass of beakers of increasing volume. Students find the mass of a 100ml beaker, a 250ml, a 400ml and a 600ml. And, I get students to expand their current table to look like this so they can record their results. As for the conclusion, students are sometimes confused by the question itself, so I explain it this way: a 400ml beaker can hold 4 times more liquid than a 100ml beaker – but, does a 400ml beaker also have a mass that is 4 times bigger than a 100ml beaker? Consider a 250ml beaker and a 100ml beaker, where the former is 2.5 times bigger in volume than the latter. So, is the mass of the 250mL beaker also 2.5 times greater than the 100mL beaker?

If you’ve tried or am trying this with your colleagues, please email me and let me know! 

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk science again soon.

Resources

Handout(s): Beaker Mass Activity

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Handouts are available below

Big Idea

It’s important to build a good culture with our colleagues in our workplace because a good culture not only makes our work more enjoyable but it also helps us be more productive together. For example, whenever there’s a change in how we do things at school – whether it’s how we assess students or the material we teach – we need to do this together. In his book, The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle cites research studies that support the conclusion that fostering a sense of belonging is a better predictor of group success than the content and information transferred within the group.

This is true for students as well. In his book, Grading for Equity, Joe Feldman mentions the importance for students to feel a sense of belonging by stating that “students don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”.

Super Crossword Activity

To foster a sense of belonging for my students and among staff at my school, I got them to help me create a Super Crossword. I created crosswords for students in each of my classes. And, I used the same activity with staff at the start of a Pro-D day. People got to share a bit about themselves (and I think everyone loves to talk about themselves – especially in the positive). People learned some fun facts about each other. And, it was an easy way for people to open up and be part of something together.

To do this with my staff or students, I first set up a Google Form with two questions: (1) What’s your name, and (2) what is something most people don’t know about you? Then, I had teachers answer the question at the opening of our pro-d day. Next, I took the responses and entered the information onto an online crossword generator. A few seconds later, I got a crossword puzzle with nearly 60 responses – all from my staff members. And, some of the stuff on this crossword is fun to read about even if you don’t know who the person may be. For example, I found out that one of my administrators volunteered at a panda sanctuary in China, that one colleague brought guinea pigs to guinea pig shows (sort of like dog shows but for guinea pigs) and that one colleague beat Michael Buble in a talent show some years back.

I’ve also received a lot of positive feedback from staff after they received a copy of the crossword. Specifically, that they love having things to talk about with other colleagues and learning more about each other. Note: I help colleagues get started with their crosswords by sending out a few clues each day. If you have a large staff, then mail out a list of staff members as well.

If you’ve tried or am trying this with your colleagues, please email me and let me know! 

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk science again soon.

Resources

Handout(s): Make a Staff Super Crossword

Our resources are free. We aren’t collecting emails for our resources. However, it would help us out if you liked us on our Facebook page and subscribed to our Youtube Channel. Thanks!