ARC :: Additional Information

Additional Information

Guidelines for marking

The following guidelines for marking show one approach to assigning a value to a student’s work. Other approaches may be used that better suit the reporting process of the school. Categories, marks, grades, visual representations or individual comments / notations may all be useful.

Range	A student in this range:
High	describes a suitable procedure, including selection of appropriate equipment and relevant safety procedures clearly identifies the variables and those that will be kept the same, indicating how this will be done clearly specifies that the investigation has been conducted over an appropriate time period describes a method for accurately gathering experimental observations in a number of trials or using a large sample size and recording them in a logical and organised manner, using correct units.
Satisfactory	outlines an appropriate methodology including selection of equipment and some relevant safety procedures adequately describes the control of appropriate variables describes a method for gathering experimental observations over a number of trials or large sample size and recording them logically.
Progressing	with assistance, outlines an investigation in a scientific context including some appropriate equipment or some safety procedures identifies some variables that need to be kept the same identifies a method for collecting and recording some data, but without an adequate number of trials or large sample size.

Feedback

During the Activity the teacher will provide oral comment to assist each group of students in designing a valid procedure for a safe investigation to collect reliable numerical data and in the selection of appropriate equipment/resources.

At the end of the Activity each group of students will use their scaffold to present their plan. Students will be provided with written feedback from the teacher to correct misunderstandings, reinforce strengths and show how students can improve their skills in planning scientific investigations.

Future directions

In groups, students will discuss their investigation and evaluate the procedure, suggesting changes, modifications or alternative strategies that would improve the design of the investigation.

Once teacher approval for the plan has been obtained the students will carry out their investigation and, with teacher guidance, will process and analyse their data to produce a written conclusion.