Spotting Patterns and Anomalies: a skill companion
A small set of reusable sheets that grow one inquiry skill: describing the pattern in data, in words and with numbers, spotting the reading that does not fit, and deciding what to do about it without claiming more than the data shows. Print the scaffolds once and slot them into the science lessons you already teach.
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 Classifying Living Things, Energy Flow in Ecosystems, Earth, Sun and Moon, Balanced and Unbalanced Forces, The Particle Model of Matter, and Pure Substances and Mixtures. 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 shows which scaffold fits which science lesson.
- Print the pattern sheet and the anomaly detective, one each per student, whenever a class has results to analyse.
- Cut out the cards once. They are reused all year, and the blank cards fit any topic.
- 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.
No science background needed
Each scaffold explains itself in plain words, and the answer sheet gives model descriptions of each pattern, the worked anomaly, the card key and a quick three-level guide. The step up from Year 6 is precision and restraint: students give the size of a trend (about 6 cm for every 10 cm), name its shape, keep an anomaly in the record while they look for its cause, and stop before a claim reaches past the data to a cause, a far-off value or everywhere.
Slot the skill into your science lessons
Every science unit produces results worth analysing. This map shows some in each Year 7 topic, the pattern or anomaly to look for, and which scaffold to reach for. You do not run these as extra lessons; you fold them into the science you teach.
| When you teach | Data | Pattern or anomaly to look for | Scaffold to slot in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classifying Living Things (AC9S7U01) | Counts of each invertebrate group in several leaf-litter samples | Which groups turn up in every sample, and a sample where a common group is missing | Anomaly detective |
| Energy Flow in Ecosystems (AC9S7U02) | Fox and rabbit numbers over ten years | Rises and falls that follow each other, a year or so apart | Describe the pattern |
| Earth, Sun and Moon (AC9S7U03) | The height of each high tide over a month | Two runs of higher tides a month, near new moon and full moon | Describe the pattern, then the cards |
| Balanced and Unbalanced Forces (AC9S7U04) | How much a trolley speeds up with each load, three trials each | Less speed-up for more mass, and one trial far from the other two | The mini-lesson, then the anomaly detective |
| The Particle Model of Matter (AC9S7U05) | The temperature of ice water every 30 seconds | Flat near 0 °C while ice remains, then rising: a pattern that changes shape | Describe the pattern |
| Pure Substances and Mixtures (AC9S7U06) | The salt left from 100 mL of several water samples | One sample far saltier than the rest: an anomaly, or a different kind of water? | Anomaly detective, then the cards |
| Any science topic | Any results with a pattern | Describe the trend in words and numbers first, then judge any point that breaks it | Describe the pattern first |
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.
- See a trend and the point that breaks it: “Find the reading that does not fit” and “The same results, read three ways”.
- Describe a relationship without reaching too far: “Which descriptions does the data support?”.
- Revise a description as more data arrives: “Watch the trend take shape, point by point”.
How the scaffolds build the skill
The pattern sheet names the shape of three trends and describes each in a sentence with a number. The anomaly detective finds the odd trial in a table of repeats, suggests a cause, works the mean with and without it, and decides what to do. The cards sort statements about one set of results into describing the trend, dealing with the anomaly, and claiming too much.
Describe the pattern, with a number
A good description names the shape of the trend and gives its size: “As the ... increases, the ... increases (or decreases) by about ... for every ...”. It stays inside the readings that were measured.
Teacher note: “a reading I would check” can honestly be “none”; not every data set has an anomaly.
Find the odd trial, then decide
An anomaly is a reading far from the others taken in the same conditions. It is kept in the record, its cause is looked for, and the trial is repeated if possible. It is left out of a mean only with a note saying why.
A. The trials
Class 7F timed how long a sugar cube took to dissolve in 200 mL of water, three trials at each temperature.
| Temperature (°C) | Trial 1 (s) | Trial 2 (s) | Trial 3 (s) | Mean (s) | Mean without the anomaly (s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 120 | 118 | 124 | ||
| 30 | 95 | 98 | 93 | ||
| 40 | 74 | 51 | 76 | ||
| 50 | 60 | 58 | 61 | ||
| 60 | 47 | 49 | 46 |
B. Investigate it
C. The pattern
Trend, anomaly, or claiming too much?
A class counted the slaters in one square of leaf litter at six depths. Cut out the cards, lay down the three grey heading cards, and sort the statements about these results under them.
Teacher note: four cards go in each pile. The answer sheet lists which is which, and why.
Pages and thickness: the trend and the odd ones out
Use this stand-alone lesson to teach the skill on its own, before you fold it into a science topic. Groups measure how thick some classroom books are and count their pages. The more pages, the thicker the book, but a hard cover or glossy paper makes a book sit off the trend, so the anomalies have causes students can find.
We are learning to
- describe a trend in words and with a number,
- identify an anomaly and look for its cause before deciding what to do with it,
- stop a description before it claims more than the data shows.
Success criteria
- I can write “As ... increases, ... by about ... for every ...” for our books.
- I can explain why one book sits off the trend, and say whether to keep it.
You need
- for each group: six to eight books of different lengths, including one hardback and one on thick or glossy paper, and a ruler,
- the pattern sheet and the anomaly detective (scaffolds 1 and 2), and the cards from scaffold 3, one set per table.
Lesson flow (about 30 minutes)
| 5 min | The odd point Show the board (see the box). Ask: “Before you click: what should the readings do, and which one does not?” |
| 10 min | Measure the books Groups count the pages of each book (the last page number will do) and measure its thickness in millimetres, then plot pages against thickness. Ask: “Which variable goes along the bottom? What happens as the pages increase?” |
| 10 min | Trend and anomaly Each student writes the trend with a number, then circles any book that sits off it and writes a possible cause. Ask: “Is the hardback a mistake, or real data with a reason? Should it go in the trend?” |
| 5 min | Sort the cards Tables sort the cards under the three heading cards. Ask: “This card claims too much. What would we need to measure before we could say it?” |
Running it shorter? Stop after the trend and anomaly, and sort the cards in your next science lesson.
Watch for these ideas
- Describing the data one point at a time (“then it went to 12, then 18”) instead of the overall trend.
- Rubbing out an anomaly, or calling it a mistake before looking for its cause.
- Saying the trend continues forever, or that it proves one thing causes the other.
Make it easier, make it bigger
- Easier: give the sentence frame with the variables filled in, and let students add the direction and the number.
- Bigger: work out the thickness of one sheet of paper from the trend, and test it with a stack of 100 sheets.
Answers and look-fors
The next sheet has model descriptions of the three patterns, the worked anomaly, the card key and a quick three-level guide. For the books, a typical paperback is a few hundredths of a millimetre per page; a hardback adds the thickness of its covers.
Answers and look-fors
Describe the pattern
| Graph | Shape | A description at standard |
|---|---|---|
| A. Shadow of a stick at noon | rises steadily | As the stick gets taller, the shadow gets longer, by about 6 cm for every 10 cm of stick. |
| B. Bounces of a dropped ball | falls quickly, then slowly | With each bounce the ball rises less: each bounce is about 60% of the one before (100, 60, 36 ...), a big drop at first and a small one later. |
| C. A cup of water left in the sun | rises, then levels off | As time passes the water warms, by 8, 5, 3, 1 °C in each 10 minutes in turn, then not at all, levelling off at about 35 °C. |
None of the three graphs has a reading to check: each point sits on its smooth trend.
Anomaly detective
The anomaly is trial 2 at 40 °C: 51 s, far quicker than the other two (74 and 76 s). Possible causes: the cube broke into pieces, the water was stirred, a smaller cube was used, or the timer started late. The mean at 40 °C is 67 s with it and 75 s without it. The class should repeat that trial, and may leave the odd value out of the mean with a note saying why; it is never rubbed out of the table. Without it, the means are 120.7, 95.3, 75, 59.7, 47.3 s: as the water gets warmer the time to dissolve falls, by 25.4, 20.3, 15.3, 12.4 s for each 10 °C, quickly at first and then more slowly.
Statement cards
| Card | Statement | Pile | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | As the leaf litter gets deeper, more slaters are found. | Describes the trend | The overall direction of the data. |
| B | The count at 6 cm is far below the counts at 4 cm and 8 cm. | Deals with the anomaly | Names the odd reading. |
| C | Leaf litter makes slaters breed faster. | Claims too much | The data counts slaters; it says nothing about breeding. |
| D | At 30 cm of litter there would be about 70 slaters. | Claims too much | Far outside the depths tested. |
| E | Between 0 and 4 cm of litter, each extra 2 cm added about 5 slaters. | Describes the trend | Gives the size of the rise, inside the data. |
| F | The 6 cm square should be checked: was it in full sun? | Deals with the anomaly | Looks for a cause before deciding. |
| G | Keep the 6 cm count in the record with a note, and count that square again. | Deals with the anomaly | Honest record, then a repeat. |
| H | Every garden in Australia has more slaters under deep litter. | Claims too much | One site cannot speak for every garden. |
| I | The rise slows between 8 cm and 10 cm of litter. | Describes the trend | Describes the shape at the deep end. |
| J | Most of the readings lie close to one rising curve. | Describes the trend | Describes how well the trend fits. |
| K | The 6 cm count was a mistake, so it can be rubbed out. | Claims too much | Claims a mistake without checking. |
| L | Without the 6 cm reading, the counts rise smoothly. | Deals with the anomaly | Shows how far the odd reading is off. |
A quick three-level guide
| Move | Working towards | At standard | Beyond |
|---|---|---|---|
| Describe a trend | lists the readings one by one | names the direction and shape, and gives its size with a number | notices where the shape changes, and says over what range |
| Handle an anomaly | ignores it, or rubs it out | identifies it, suggests a cause, keeps it with a note and plans a repeat | shows how much it moves a mean, and decides when to leave it out |
| Stay inside the data | claims a cause or a far-off value | describes only what was measured, in the place it was measured | says what further data would be needed to make a wider claim |
A student at standard describes a trend with its shape and size, deals honestly with an anomaly, and stays inside the data. The skill grows all year, so keep the scaffolds coming back whenever a class has results.