Skill companion: Evidence-Based Arguments (Year 10)

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Skill companion · Year 10 Science Inquiryseegongsik /au

Evidence-Based Arguments: a skill companion

A small set of reusable sheets that grow one inquiry skill at Year 10 depth: building an argument from several independent lines of evidence, answering the strongest objection to it, weighing sources by how they were made and checked, and using secondary data and information ethically, with the right permission and credit, including for First Nations knowledge.

AC9S10I07

construct arguments based on analysis of a variety of evidence to support conclusions or evaluate claims, and consider any ethical issues and cultural protocols associated with accessing, using or citing secondary data or information

What a skill companion is

Inquiry skills are not a topic of their own. They grow inside the units a class teaches all year. So this pack is not a full term of lessons. It is three reusable scaffolds, a map of where they fit, and a short stand-alone lesson for teaching the skill on its own first.

Start here: five minutes

Read the pairing map on the next page: it gives a claim, its evidence and the protocol it needs for each Year 10 topic.
Print the argument builder when a class writes a conclusion or evaluates a claim, and the source sheet when it uses research.
Cut out the cards once. They are reused all year.
Open the free interactive unit on your board when you want a worked example of the skill.
Run the one-page mini-lesson first if you want to teach the skill before folding it into a topic.

The step up from Year 9

The descriptor is the same in Years 9 and 10; the depth is not. In Year 9 students built an argument and weighed sources. In Year 10 they choose the strongest evidence from several independent lines and leave out what does not bear on the claim, link each piece with reasoning, answer a rebuttal, and treat permission, consent, licences and funding as part of using evidence well.

On the board

This pack is the printable half of a free interactive unit. On screen, students sort cited evidence in “Evaluate the safe-passage claim from a variety of cited evidence”, weigh the options in “How should you access the Traditional Owner sky knowledge?”, and step through “Watch the conclusion follow the variety of evidence”.

seegongsik.com/au/y10/inquiry/AC9S10I07

Aligned to the Australian Curriculum V9 (AC9S10I07). This pack is original material from seegongsik, independently produced and not endorsed by ACARA. Curriculum content descriptors are (c) ACARA, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Free to print and use in class.

Where the skill fitsPairing map

Slot the skill into your science lessons

A strong argument rests on several kinds of evidence that agree, and uses each source with permission and credit. This map gives a claim for each Year 10 topic, the variety of evidence behind it, and the ethical or cultural step that using it needs.

When you teach	A claim to argue	A variety of evidence	Ethics and protocols
Heredity: Cell Division and Inheritance (AC9S10U01)	Traits are passed on by genes on chromosomes	Mendel’s ratios, chromosomes seen dividing in meiosis, DNA sequencing	Genetic data about people needs consent and privacy
Evolution by Natural Selection (AC9S10U02)	Whales evolved from land mammals	Fossils, leftover hip bones, DNA, embryos	Cite the museums and papers; fossils on Country need permission to collect
The Big Bang and the Universe (AC9S10U03)	The universe began hot and dense about 13.8 billion years ago	Red shifts, the microwave background, the share of hydrogen and helium	First Nations sky knowledge is shared only with permission and credit
Energy Flow and Climate Change (AC9S10U04)	Recent warming is mostly caused by people	Thermometer records, ice cores, the kind of carbon in the air	Name the agencies and follow their data licences
Newton’s Laws of Motion (AC9S10U05)	Acceleration is proportional to force	The class’s data, other classes’ data, published data	Report every run honestly, including the odd ones
Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table (AC9S10U06)	Reactivity in Group 1 increases down the group	Videos of reactions, ionisation energies, radii	Cite the data tables and the video makers
Reaction Types and Rates (AC9S10U07)	A catalyst speeds a reaction without being used up	Class data, the catalyst’s mass before and after, industrial examples	Say who funded any study of a product

The three moves, and the picture that backs each one

When you want a worked example on the board, open the interactive unit and use the picture that matches the move.

Weigh a variety of cited evidence: “Evaluate the safe-passage claim from a variety of cited evidence”.
Access cultural knowledge the right way: “How should you access the Traditional Owner sky knowledge?”.
Let the conclusion follow the whole body of evidence: “Watch the conclusion follow the variety of evidence”.

Scaffold 1 · Argument builderOne per student

Claim, evidence, reasoning, rebuttal

NameClassDate

Claim: Whales evolved from four-legged land mammals. Choose the three strongest pieces of evidence below, from as many different kinds as you can. Leave out any that does not bear on the claim. Link each to the claim with a reason, then answer the objection.

1	Fossils about 50 million years old, such as Pakicetus and Ambulocetus, show animals with legs and whale-like skulls and ears.
2	Modern whales have small hip bones inside the body that support no legs.
3	Whales are the largest animals alive today.
4	Comparing DNA shows that the closest living relatives of whales are hippopotamuses.
5	Early dolphin embryos grow small hind-limb buds that disappear before birth.
6	Whales breathe air through lungs and feed their young on milk.

Evidence (number) and reasoning: why it supports the claim
Evidence and reasoning
Evidence and reasoning

The one I left out, and why:

The objection

“Nobody watched whales evolve, so it cannot be known.”

My answer to it:

My conclusion, and how sure the evidence lets me be:

Scaffold 2 · Weigh the sourcesOne per student

How much weight does each source carry?

NameClassDate

Claim: the universe began in a hot, dense state about 13.8 billion years ago. For each source, say what kind it is (first-hand data or a report of it, checked by other experts or not) and how much weight it should carry in an argument.

Source	What it is	Kind, and checked?	Weight: high, medium or low? Why?
A	A space agency’s release of a satellite map of the cosmic microwave background, with the methods and the peer-reviewed papers that analyse it.
B	A 1929 journal paper relating the distances of galaxies to the speeds at which they move away.
C	A university textbook chapter on how much hydrogen and helium the early universe made.
D	A popular science magazine article quoting an astronomer on the age of the universe.
E	An online video claiming the red shift happens because light gets “tired” on long journeys, citing no measurements.

The two sources I would build the argument on:

How I would answer source E with evidence:

How I would cite source A in my report:

Scaffold 3 · Protocol cards (cut out)Reuse all year

Which protocol does each use of secondary data need?

Cut out the twelve cards. Six describe a way of using someone else’s data or knowledge; six give a protocol. Pair each use with the protocol it needs. Then say what could go wrong for the people involved if the protocol were skipped.

PROTOCOLCite the authors, the year and the source beneath the graph.Card A

USINGReusing a photo found onlineCard B

PROTOCOLSay who funded it, as a possible source of bias, and look for independent studies.Card C

USINGIncluding an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander story about the starsCard D

USINGUsing classmates’ sleep and reaction-time resultsCard E

PROTOCOLFollow its licence terms and name the agency as the source.Card F

USINGPutting a graph from a published paper into your reportCard G

PROTOCOLCheck the licence and credit the creator, or ask permission.Card H

USINGQuoting a study paid for by a company that sells the product testedCard I

PROTOCOLFollow the community’s protocols, use only what it has agreed to share, and credit the knowledge holders.Card J

USINGUsing a government weather data setCard K

PROTOCOLAsk for consent first and keep the data without names.Card L

Teacher note: the answer sheet lists the pairs. Some uses need more than one protocol; accept any that fits.

Mini-lesson · Teacher planAbout 30 minutes

How old is the universe?

Astronomers put the age of the universe at about 13.8 billion years. No one measured it with a clock: the number comes from several independent kinds of evidence that agree. Pairs build the argument from three of them (galaxies moving apart, the cosmic microwave background, and the oldest stars), answer a weak counter-claim, and cite every source they use.

We are learning to

build an argument from several independent kinds of evidence,
answer a counter-claim with evidence, not opinion,
cite the sources of secondary data and information.

Success criteria

I can explain how three different kinds of evidence point to the same age.
I can answer the “tired light” claim with a measurement it cannot explain.

You need

three short evidence cards written on the board or a slide: galaxies move apart faster the further away they are; the whole sky glows faintly with microwaves left from a hot, dense early universe; the oldest stars measured are about 13 billion years old,
the argument builder and source sheet (scaffolds 1 and 2), and the cards from scaffold 3, one set per table.

Lesson flow (about 30 minutes)

5 min	No clock Pose the question: how could anyone know the age of something no one watched begin? Ask: “How do we know the age of a tree, or of a rock, without having watched it form?”
12 min	Build the argument Pairs link each evidence card to the claim with a reason, using the argument frame. Show the board (see the box). Ask: “Why is the argument stronger with three kinds of evidence than with three galaxies?”
8 min	Answer and cite Read out the tired-light claim from source E. Pairs answer it with evidence and write how they would cite one source. While they finish, tables match the protocol cards. Ask: “Is it enough to say the video is wrong? What measurement does it fail to explain?”
5 min	How sure? Pairs add one sentence on how sure the evidence lets them be, and one thing that would change their mind.

Running it shorter? Stop after the argument, and answer the counter-claim and cite in your next science lesson.

On the board

For a worked example, open the unit and step through “Watch the conclusion follow the variety of evidence”: one uncertain source, then several that agree, then one that disagrees and is weighed. Ask how the conclusion changed at each step.

seegongsik.com/au/y10/inquiry/AC9S10I07

Watch for these ideas

Piling up evidence of one kind instead of independent kinds.
Answering a counter-claim by dismissing it, not by evidence.
Copying a fact or a picture without saying where it came from.

Make it easier, make it bigger

Easier: give pairs the reasons with gaps, and ask them to match each reason to its evidence card.
Bigger: find the age from the expansion alone (distance divided by speed for one galaxy) and compare it with 13.8 billion years.

Answers and look-fors

The next sheet has a model argument about whales, the weights of the five sources, the protocol pairs, and a quick three-level guide.

Answers · For the teacherModel responses

Answers and look-fors

Argument builder

Claim: Whales evolved from four-legged land mammals. Strong choices draw on different kinds of evidence: fossils (1), anatomy (2), DNA (4) or embryos (5); evidence 6 shows that whales are mammals but not, by itself, that they came from land. Leave out 3: Size says nothing about where whales came from.

No.	Reasoning that links it to the claim
1	Transitional forms in the right order in time link land mammals to whales.
2	A leftover structure makes sense only if their ancestors had legs.
4	Shared DNA places whales on the family tree of hoofed land mammals.
5	Development still follows part of the plan for a four-legged body.
6	They share the defining features of mammals, which began on land.

Objection: “Nobody watched whales evolve, so it cannot be known.” Answer: we know many things no one watched happen, from the age of rocks to the cause of a fire, by evidence that agrees from independent lines; here fossils, anatomy, DNA and embryos all point the same way, and evolution by natural selection is watched today in fast-breeding living things. Conclusion: the evidence strongly supports the claim; the exact branching and dates are refined as new fossils are found.

Weigh the sources

Source	Kind	Weight	Why
A	primary data, peer reviewed	high	Measured directly, checked by reviewers and by other instruments.
B	primary, peer reviewed, historical	medium	Founding evidence for expansion, but its distances, and so its rate, were later corrected.
C	secondary, reviewed	high	Summarises many independent measurements that match the prediction.
D	secondary, edited but not peer reviewed	medium	Useful to explain, but check its numbers against the sources it reports on.
E	opinion, no evidence cited	low	Tired light cannot explain why distant supernovae also brighten and fade more slowly, a stretch in time that expansion predicts.

Build on A and C, two independent kinds of evidence. A citation for A names the agency or authors, the title, the year and where it is found, for example the release’s web address and the date it was read.

Protocol cards (pairs)

Cards	Using	Protocol
G and A	Putting a graph from a published paper into your report	Cite the authors, the year and the source beneath the graph.
D and J	Including an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander story about the stars	Follow the community’s protocols, use only what it has agreed to share, and credit the knowledge holders.
E and L	Using classmates’ sleep and reaction-time results	Ask for consent first and keep the data without names.
B and H	Reusing a photo found online	Check the licence and credit the creator, or ask permission.
K and F	Using a government weather data set	Follow its licence terms and name the agency as the source.
I and C	Quoting a study paid for by a company that sells the product tested	Say who funded it, as a possible source of bias, and look for independent studies.

A quick three-level guide

Move	Working towards	At standard	Beyond
Evidence	uses one kind of evidence, or evidence that does not bear on the claim	chooses relevant evidence of several independent kinds	explains why independent lines that agree make the case strong
Reasoning	lists evidence without linking it	links each piece of evidence to the claim with a reason	answers a counter-claim with evidence it cannot explain
Ethics and protocols	copies without credit	cites sources and asks for consent and permission	follows cultural protocols and notes funding as a possible bias

In the mini-lesson, the three cards agree: running the expansion backwards, the age of the oldest light, and the age of the oldest stars all land near 13 to 14 billion years. Tired light cannot explain why distant supernovae also brighten and fade more slowly.