Lesson 1: Saving Fred
• White space
Challenge : What approaches do you use to solve problems? What do scientists do?
What is a problem you had to solve in the past few days?
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How did you solve it?
Introduction: Anticipation Guide 1.1
Vocabulary:
Materials: √
Procedure: √
Scientific method. Hypothesis
Data: Procedure to save Fred
Analysis:

Solving Problems Discussion Questions
How Do you solve problems?
Do your ways of solving problems depend on the kind of problem you have to solve?
How do scientists solve problems? What kind of problems do scientists work to solve?
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Have you learned about any of the methods scientists use to solve problems?
How do scientists know what to do?
Are these methods similar to the ones you use to solve problems?
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• Work in pairs
• Record observations about your approach
– Discussion
– Questions
– Steps to solving the problem
• Use the Developing Communication Skills Handout
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COMMUNICATING
To better understand
To share an idea
To disagree
To challenge
To look for feedback
To provide positive feedback
To provide constructive feedback
Developing Communication Skills
SENTENCE STARTERS
One point that was not clear to me was . . .
Are you saying that . . .
Can you please clarify . . .
Another idea is to . . .
What if we tried . . .I
have an idea. We could try . . .
I see your point, but what about . . .
Another way of looking at it is . . .
I’m still not convinced that . . .
How did you reach the conclusion that . . .
What makes you think that . . .
How does it explain . . .
What would help me improve . . .
Does it make sense, what I said about . . .
One strength of your idea is . . .
Your idea is good because . . .
The argument would be stronger if . . .
Another way to do it would be . . .
What if you said it like this . . .
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Traditional Scientific Method
1. State the problem or question.
2. Propose an explanation, also known as the hypothesis.
3. Collect evidence. (Conduct an experiment.)
4. Analyze data.
5. Draw conclusions and, if necessary, revise and repeat the experiment.
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Hypothesis
You walk past a school in the morning. As you stroll by, you hear a bell ring. A minute later, you pass a child running in the direction of the school.
What is your hypothesis about why the child is running?
• The child is late for school
What other explanations, or hypotheses, could you make about why the child is running?
• She is running for exercise
• She is late for a school bus.
• A dog is chasing her
• The child is late for school
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Hypothesis
A sign identifies the school as Franklin High School, and the child appears to be no more than nine years old.
Would you change your hypothesis? Why or why not?
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You can solve problems in many different ways. In fact, you may use more than one way to solve a single problem.
1a.
1b.
Which of these ways did you and your partner use to save Fred?
Choose three of these ways, and record a problem that could be solved using each method.
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As a class, discuss the ways in which various groups of partners saved
Fred.
How were your problem-solving methods similar?
How were they different?
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3. Do you think scientists only follow one method to solve problems? Explain.
4. The traditional scientific method includes the following steps for solving problems:
Step 1. State the problem or question.
Step 2. Propose an explanation, also known as the hypothesis.
Step 3. Collect evidence. (Conduct an experiment.)
Step 4. Analyze data.
Step 5. Draw conclusions, and, if necessary, revise and repeat the experiment.
When you saved Fred, did you follow all of these steps in this order? Explain.
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6. Fill in the “After” column for statements 1 and 2 only on Student Sheet 1.1
“Anticipation Guide: Ideas about Experimental Design.” Did your thinking change?
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7. Reflection: People face problems in their lives every day. What did you learn from this activity that you can use to solve other problems? How do you think this is different from how scientists solve problems?
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