Investigable Questions: a skill companion

A small set of reusable sheets that grow one inquiry skill: noticing a pattern, asking a question that tests the relationship behind it, and predicting a result with a reason, including knowing when a pattern can no longer be trusted. 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 Habitat Conditions and Survival; Earth, Sun and the Day-Night Cycle; Electrical Circuits and Energy; and Reversible and Irreversible Changes. 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 maker and the prediction sheet, one each per child, whenever a lesson starts from a pattern 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 predictions, a model question and prediction for every Year 6 topic, and a quick three-level guide. The step up from Year 5 is the relationship: children say how two things are linked (the more light, the taller, up to a point), predict inside the range they tested, and explain why a prediction far outside it is a guess.

Slot the skill into your science lessons

The same skill of posing a question about a relationship and predicting fits into every science unit. This map shows a pattern children can notice in each Year 6 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 number of cells”.
• Read the relationship in measured results, and question a reading that breaks it: “See the pattern in the brightness readings” and “Find the reading that breaks the pattern”.
• 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 maker turns something a child noticed into an investigable question about a relationship, naming what to change, what to measure and what to keep the same, and the relationship they expect. The prediction sheet reads a pattern that rises and then levels off, predicts one result inside the tested range and one just outside it, and asks when a pattern stops being safe to use. The question cards sharpen the first step: some questions test a relationship, some ask for one fact, and some are opinions no measurement can settle.

Ask about a relationship

Science often starts with a pattern you notice: when one thing changes, another seems to change too. An investigable question asks how the first thing affects the second, so that a fair test can find out.

What I noticed

My investigable question

To test it fairly

The relationship I expect

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 inside and outside the pattern

A reasoned prediction uses the pattern you measured. Inside the range you tested, the pattern guides you well. Outside it, the pattern may change, so the further out you go, the less sure you can be.

A. Read the pattern

Class 6B grew bean seedlings for 10 days under a lamp on a timer. Each group got a different number of hours of light a day; the pots, soil, water and seeds were kept the same. They measured the average height.

Mark your two predicted points on the dashed lines of the graph.

B. My own prediction

A relationship, one fact, 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 does not test a relationship, try rewriting it on a blank card so that it does.

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 pattern to a prediction you can trust

Use this stand-alone lesson to teach the skill on its own, before you fold it into a science topic. A ruler ramp, a marble and a stack of books give the class a relationship of its own in a few minutes: the higher the ramp, the further the marble rolls. The three scaffolds then turn it into an investigable question, two predictions and a sort.

We are learning to

• notice a pattern between two things and turn it into an investigable question,
• predict a result inside the range we tested, with a reason from the pattern,
• explain why a prediction far outside the range is less sure.

Success criteria

• I can ask a “How does ... affect ...?” question that names what to change and what to measure.
• I can say which of two predictions I trust more, and why.

You need

• a ruler with a groove (or card folded into a channel), a marble, a stack of books, a tape measure and masking tape,
• the question maker and the prediction sheet (scaffolds 1 and 2), one each per child,
• the question cards from scaffold 3, one set per table, and the interactive unit on your board (optional).

Lesson flow (about 30 minutes)

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

Watch for these ideas

• A question that names only one thing, like “how far does a marble roll?”. Ask what they would change.
• Changing two things at once, such as the ramp height and the marble. Then nobody can tell which change mattered.
• Trusting a prediction far outside the tested range as much as one inside it: at 8 books the marble may bounce or skid.

Make it easier, make it bigger

• Easier: give the frame “How does the height of the ramp affect ...?” and let children finish it.
• Bigger: graph the class’s results and decide whether the pattern is the more, the more all the way, or levels off.

Answers and look-fors

The next sheet has the card key, the worked seedling predictions, a model question and prediction for each Year 6 topic, and a quick three-level guide.

Answers and look-fors

Question cards

A rewrite at standard turns, for example, ‘What is the temperature of the tap water right now?’ into ‘How does the time of day affect the temperature of the tap water?’.

Predict inside and outside the pattern: the seedlings

Each 2 more hours of light, the height grew by 3, then 2, then 1 cm (3, 6, 8, 9): the gains shrink each time, so the pattern rises and levels off. At 5 hours, inside the range and between the readings at 4 and 6 hours, about 7 cm is a confident prediction. At 10 hours, just outside, the next gain should be about 0 cm, so about 9 cm, said with less certainty. At 24 hours a day nothing was tested anywhere near, so the pattern cannot say; only a test can.

Question maker and prediction sheet: what a good response sounds like

A quick three-level guide

A child at standard poses a question about a relationship and predicts its result with a reason, inside the range that was tested. The skill grows all year, so keep the scaffolds coming back in every science topic.