Investigable Questions: a skill companion

A small set of reusable sheets that grow one inquiry skill: noticing a pattern, asking a question that an investigation can answer, and predicting the result with a reason. Print the scaffolds once and slot them into the science lessons you are already teaching.

What a skill companion is

Inquiry skills are not a topic of their own. They grow inside the science units a class teaches all year, such as Features and Behaviours for Survival; Weathering, Erosion and Deposition; Light, Shadows and Reflection; and Particles in Solids, Liquids and Gases. 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

1. Read the pairing map on the next page: it shows which scaffold fits which science lesson.
2. Print the question sharpener and the prediction sheet, one each per child, whenever a lesson starts from something children have noticed.
3. Cut out the question cards once. They are reused all year, and the blank cards fit any topic.
4. Open the free interactive unit on your board when you want a worked example of the skill.
5. Run the one-page mini-lesson first if you want to teach the skill before folding it into a topic.

No science background needed

This pack is written for the busy generalist teacher. Each scaffold explains itself in plain words, and the answer sheet gives the card key, the worked prediction, a model question and prediction for every Year 5 topic, and a quick three-level guide. The step up from Year 4 is the test: an investigable question names one thing to change and one thing to measure, and a reasoned prediction gives its reason, from a pattern or from the science.

Slot the skill into your science lessons

The same skill of posing a question and predicting fits into every science unit. This map shows a pattern children can notice in each Year 5 topic, an investigable question about the relationship behind it, and which scaffold to reach for. You do not run these as extra lessons; you fold them into the science you teach.

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 children are working on.

• Turn a pattern into a question a fair test can answer, with one thing to change and one to measure: “Frame the question: change only the light” and “Decide what to measure before you start”.
• Read the pattern in measured results: “See the pattern in the shadow readings”.
• Tell a prediction reasoned from the pattern from a guess: “Sort the reasoned predictions from the guesses”.

How the scaffolds build the skill

The question sharpener turns something a child noticed into an investigable question, naming what to change, what to measure and what to keep the same. The prediction sheet reads a pattern in measured results and predicts a result not yet measured, with a reason from the pattern and from the science. The question cards sharpen the first step: some questions can be tested, some are facts to look up, and some are opinions no measurement can settle.

Sharpen a question

Science often starts with something you notice. An investigable question turns it into something a fair test can answer: you change one thing and measure what happens to another.

What I noticed

My first question

Sharpen it

An investigable question names the one thing you change and the one thing you measure.

To test it fairly

Teacher note: if a child ticks “Not yet”, the question usually has nothing to change or nothing to measure. Help them name one of each, then reword it with “How does ... affect ...?”.

Predict with a reason

A reasoned prediction says what you expect and why. The reason can come from a pattern you have measured, or from what you know about the science.

A. Read the pattern

Class 5A dropped a sugar cube into still water at four temperatures (their teacher poured the warm water) and timed how long it took to dissolve completely.

Mark your predicted point on the dashed line of the graph.

B. My own prediction

Test it, look it up, or not science?

Cut out the cards. Lay down the three grey heading cards, then sort the question cards under them. For each question that is not ‘Test it’, try rewriting it on a blank card so that it can be tested.

Teacher note: four cards go in each pile. The answer sheet lists which is which, and why. The blank cards let children write their own questions and swap them with another table to sort.

From a noticed pattern to a test

Use this stand-alone lesson to teach the skill on its own, before you fold it into a science topic. A torch and a small toy give the class a pattern of its own in a few minutes; the three scaffolds then turn it into an investigable question, a reasoned prediction and a sort.

We are learning to

• notice a pattern and turn it into a question an investigation can answer,
• name the one thing to change, the thing to measure and the things to keep the same,
• predict a result with a reason from the pattern.

Success criteria

• I can ask a “How does ... affect ...?” question that a fair test can answer.
• I can predict a result we have not measured yet, and say why.

You need

• a torch, a small toy that stands up, a ruler, and a stack of books to rest the torch on at different heights,
• the question sharpener and the prediction sheet (scaffolds 1 and 2), one each per child,
• the question cards from scaffold 3, one set per table, cut out ahead or by fast finishers,
• the free interactive unit on your board, if you have one (optional).

Lesson flow (about 30 minutes)

Running it shorter? Stop after Sharpen the question, and pick up the measuring and the cards in your next science lesson.

Watch for these ideas

• A question no test can answer, like “are long shadows spooky?”. Ask what they could change and what they could measure.
• Changing two things at once, such as the torch height and its distance. Then nobody can tell which change made the difference.
• A prediction with no reason, or a reason that is not about the pattern. Ask which observation points that way.

Make it easier, make it bigger

• Easier: give the question frame “How does the height of the torch affect ...?” and let children finish it.
• Bigger: predict how high the torch must be for the shadow to be as short as the toy is tall, then test it.

Answers and look-fors

The next sheet has the card key, the worked sugar-cube prediction, a model question and prediction for each Year 5 topic, and a quick three-level guide.

Answers and look-fors

Question cards

A rewrite at standard turns, for example, ‘Which rock in the garden is the prettiest?’ into ‘Which rock in the garden wears away the most when rubbed with sandpaper twenty times?’.

Predict with a reason: the sugar cube

Each 10 °C warmer, the time fell by 4, then 3, then 2 minutes (14, 10, 7, 5): the falls get smaller each time. The next fall should be about 1 minute, so at 50 °C about 4 minutes is a reasoned prediction; anything a little under 5 minutes, with that reason, is at standard. The science reason: warmer water particles move faster, so they carry the sugar particles away sooner.

Sharpener and prediction sheet: what a good response sounds like

A quick three-level guide

A child at standard poses a question a fair test can answer and predicts its result with a reason. The skill grows all year, so keep the scaffolds coming back in every science topic.