Claims & Evidence

1. Claims & Evidence By Mrs. Gilmore & Ms. Titus

2. What is an observation? Answer: • When you observe, you become aware of something using one of your senses. Your five senses are smell, taste, sight, touch, and sound. In an observation you simply describe something as it appears. • An observation is a statement describing a fact.

3. What is an observation? • It’s evidence!! • There are twotypes of observations • Qualitative • Quantitative

4. Qualitative Observations • Qualitative observations describewhat we observe. • “Qualitative” = quality (describes) • These observations use adjectives to describesomething. • Example: The flower has white petals. • Example: Mr. M has blue eyes.

5. Quantitative Measurements • Quantitative observations measurewhat we observe. • “Quantitative” = quantity (measures) • These observations use numbers to measure something in a quantitative way. • Example: The flower has seven petals. • Example: Mr. M has two eyes.

6. Left side - Observation On the left side, record 5 observations about your science classroom. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

7. Left side • Label your observations as qualitative or quantitative. • Which observations do you feel would be more useful to describe this room to someone. Why?

8. Which is better? • Both types are valuable in science. In experiments, though, quantitative observations can be precisely and objectively compared. Qualitative: The road is long. (describes) Quantitative:The road is 5 km long. (measures)

9. Which is better? • For example, someone might say that a dead fish is smelly. • It is hard to know just how smelly the fish is. • Scientist, can however, make this more quantitative, by using a rating system. • If you rate the “smelliness” on a scale of 1-5, you now can now compare values and graph this information.

10. Making Claims • Explanations can be inferred for an observationyou have made. • They are based on your past experiences and prior knowledge. • Claims are often changed when new observations are made.

11. Some examples • Evidence: The grass on the school’s front lawn is wet. • Possible claims: • It rained. • The sprinkler was on. • There is dew on the grass from the morning dew. • A dog urinated on the grass! • All of these inferences could possibly explain why the grass is wet. They are all based on prior experiences.

12. Left Side - More Examples! • Evidence:A student is sitting in the main office. • Possible claims: Why might a student be sitting there.

13. Left side – Using your observations, make 3 claims about this classroom 1. 2. 3.

14. Using them together Evidence • That plant is extremely wilted. • The car stopped running • The Sox are leading their division Claims • That plant is extremely wilted due to a lack of water. • The car stopped running because it was out of gas. • The sox are leading there division because they are playing well right now.

15. More examples • What observations can we make about this picture? • What can we claim based on this picture?

16. What about claims . . . The Good The Bad • Backed up by evidence. • Plate Tectonics • Updated when new evidence is obtained. • Dogs n’ Turnips … • They should NOT be thought of as permanent. • The Earth is flat… • They should NOT preclude future testing • Why are polar bears white?