Investigating a Question

Balancing Act

Developing Questions for Investigations

Investigating Balance

Conference Posters

Scams through Time

Project: Conference Posters

Duration: Approximately 100 minutes

Students prepare a poster to display their findings from the Lab within T6.3 (or any lab) and then a "scientific conference" to share findings.

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

Students practice developing a science poster similar to those often seen at science fairs or similar events.

Teacher Tips

This is a good warm-up activity if students will be participating in a school or regional science fair.

Materials

Poster Board
Construction Paper
Tape/Glue
Scissors
Markers

Teacher Tune-up

ACTIVITY OVERVIEW

Prepare posters (60 minutes)
Present and discuss posters (40 minutes)

Prepare posters (60 minutes)

Students prepare a poster to display their findings. Tell students to design these posters for other young scientists who take their work seriously and have high expectations. Therefore, students’ posters should be neatly constructed and informative.

Paraphrase and discuss:

Poster should include the following elements.

Title: The title of the poster should be an abbreviated form of the team’s question.
Hypothesis and procedure: Teams may revise their procedure if they found during their investigation that they needed to make adjustments to the original procedure.
Data table: If possible, make a copy of the students’ data tables so the tables may be included on the poster. If this isn’t possible because the originals are in the workbook, have students re-create their tables on their posters.
Claims, evidence, reasoning statement
Future experiment: ask students to write an idea for a future experiment that is based on their investigation results. For example: “Based on the finding from this investigation, we would like to conduct a future investigation on …”

Finally, before teams present to the class, ask them to consider possible criticisms to their investigations. Have them think of potential questions and/or criticisms that their audience may have.

Present and discuss posters (40 minutes)

Teams present their posters to the class. There are several formats for this activity.

Smaller classes:

Each group presents individually, with one or two opportunities for the audience to give feedback.

Larger classes:

Create a gallery walk, which may be more efficient. Split the class up into two groups, A and B. Group A presents and Group B visits each team in Group A. Then, Group B presents, and Group A visits each team in Group B.
Each team should develop one comment and one question for each of the presenting teams.

Discussion format:

Determine how much time is available for a discussion on each team’s investigation. Encourage the class to offer constructive feedback and to ask the thoughtful questions they developed earlier.
Allow teams to first hear feedback from several teams and then give teams a few minutes to respond. This way, students can synthesize their feedback prior to responding.

BETA Version - Please send comments and corrections to info@serpinstitute.org

This project was supported by Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation initiative dedicated to engaging everyone with the process of science.

Strategic Education Research Partnership

1100 Connecticut Ave NW Suite 1310 • Washington, DC 20036 • (202) 223-8555

info@serpinstitute.org