Questions, Predictions and Hypotheses: a skill companion

A small set of reusable sheets that grow one inquiry skill: turning a pattern into an investigable question, proposing a hypothesis that explains it with a science model, deriving a prediction a test can check, and testing a relationship in real results. 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 Cells, Plate Tectonics, The Rock Cycle, Kinetic and Potential Energy, Elements, Compounds and Mixtures, and Physical and Chemical 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 model maker and the relationship sheet, one each per student, whenever a lesson starts from a pattern.
3. Cut out the 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.

The step up from Year 7

In Year 7 a hypothesis was “If ..., then ..., because ...”. In Year 8 students keep the two halves apart. The hypothesis is the proposed explanation, and it comes from a model such as the particle model, the energy model or the plate model. The prediction is what that explanation says we should observe, stated so that a result could prove it wrong. Then they test the relationship: does the measured pattern have the shape the hypothesis says it should, such as twice the height giving twice the distance?

Slot the skill into your science lessons

The same skill fits into every science unit. This map shows a pattern students can notice in each Year 8 topic, an investigable question about it, the model that would explain 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.

• Change one variable, measure one, keep the rest the same: “Frame the question: change only the temperature”.
• Read the relationship, and recheck a reading that breaks it: “See the relationship between temperature and reaction time” and “Spot the trial to recheck”.
• Tell a hypothesis grounded in a model from a guess: “Hypothesis or just a guess?”.

How the scaffolds build the skill

The model maker runs from a pattern to a question, then to a hypothesis drawn from a model and the prediction it leads to. The relationship sheet gives a hypothesis and measured results, asks whether the pattern has the shape the hypothesis predicts, and asks for predictions inside and outside the tested range. The cards sharpen the difference between a hypothesis, a prediction and a statement that is neither.

From a pattern to a hypothesis and a prediction

A hypothesis proposes why something happens, using a science model. A prediction says what you should observe if the hypothesis is right. Keep them apart: a test checks the prediction, and the result tells you about the hypothesis.

What I noticed

My investigable question

The variables

The model I will use

For example: the particle model, the energy model, the cell model, the plate model, or the body’s organ systems.

My hypothesis: why it happens

My prediction: what I should observe

Teacher note: a “Not yet” on the first line usually means the hypothesis repeats the prediction (“it will be faster because it goes faster”). Ask which model explains the pattern, and what that model says is happening.

Does the pattern have the shape the hypothesis says?

A hypothesis often predicts the shape of a relationship, not just its direction. The results test that shape, and the pattern lets you predict new results: with confidence inside the tested range, and with less outside it.

A. The hypothesis, the prediction and the results

Class 8B’s hypothesis: a ball released higher up a ramp has more gravitational potential energy, which becomes kinetic energy at the bottom, and the carpet takes that energy away at a steady rate. Their prediction: the distance the ball rolls grows in step with the height, so twice the height gives about twice the distance. They released the same ball from five heights on the same ramp, three times each, and recorded the middle distance.

B. Test and predict

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

C. My own hypothesis and prediction

Hypothesis, prediction, or neither?

Cut out the cards. Lay down the three grey heading cards, then sort the statement cards under them. For each prediction, write on a blank card a hypothesis that would explain it.

Teacher note: the piles are not the same size. The answer sheet lists which card is which, and why, and pairs card C with the hypothesis on card L that predicts it.

The hypothesis first, then the prediction

Use this stand-alone lesson to teach the skill on its own, before you fold it into a science topic. Effervescent antacid tablets fizzing in cold and warm water give the class a pattern in a few minutes. The particle model supplies the hypothesis, and the scaffolds keep the explanation and the prediction apart.

We are learning to

• write a hypothesis that explains a pattern using a science model,
• derive a prediction a test can check, and say what result would count against the hypothesis,
• tell a hypothesis from a prediction, and from a statement that is neither.

Success criteria

• I can write the hypothesis and the prediction for our tablets as two separate sentences.
• I can say what result would count against my hypothesis.

You need

• for each group: three cups of the same kind, a measuring jug, effervescent antacid tablets cut into quarters (the same size of piece every trial), water from the cold tap, at room temperature and warm from the hot tap (an adult fills the warm cups; not from a kettle), a thermometer if you have one, and a stopwatch,
• the model maker (scaffold 1), one per student, and the cards from scaffold 3, one set per table. Tablets stay out of mouths; wipe up spills.

Lesson flow (about 30 minutes)

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

Watch for these ideas

• A hypothesis that only repeats the prediction, such as “it fizzes faster because it is quicker”.
• A prediction with nothing to measure, such as “something will happen”.
• Changing the water temperature and the size of the tablet piece at the same time.

Make it easier, make it bigger

• Easier: give the frames “I think the tablet fizzes faster in warm water because the particles ...” and “If the water is warmer, then the fizzing time will ...”.
• Bigger: predict the time at a temperature between two tested ones, then test it and see how close the prediction came.

Answers and look-fors

The next sheet has the card key, the worked ramp results, a model hypothesis and prediction for each Year 8 topic, and a quick three-level guide.

Answers and look-fors

Hypothesis cards

A blank card at standard explains card J: ‘Salt changes how well the water carries each part of the ink, so the colours travel different distances.’

Testing a relationship: the ramp

The words from the energy model are “gravitational potential energy”, “kinetic energy” and “takes that energy away”; the prediction is the shape they lead to (distance in step with height). Each 10 cm higher, the distance rose by 53, 46, 55, 43 cm, close to 50 every time. Twice the height: 10 to 20 cm took the distance from 49 to 102 cm (2.1 times), and 20 to 40 cm from 102 to 203 cm (2.0 times), so the results support it. Distances that grew much less than double, or stopped growing, would have counted against it. At 35 cm, between the readings at 30 and 40 cm, about 176 cm is a confident prediction. At 70 cm, about 5 cm for every centimetre of height gives about 350 cm, said with less certainty: the ball may run off the carpet or bounce at the foot of the ramp. From 2 m nothing was tested anywhere near, so only a test can say.

Model maker: what a good response sounds like

A quick three-level guide

A student at standard explains a pattern with a named model and writes the prediction as a separate, measurable sentence. The skill grows all year, so keep the scaffolds coming back in every science topic.