Science Questions (from John E Penick, given by SEP)

Questions for the Answers from the Science Teacher, January 1996 by John E. Penick, Linda W. Crow, Ronald J. Bonnstetter

History: We begin with history because these question relate to the student's experience... students can almost always talk about what they have done....

What did you do?
What happened?
What happened next?
What did you do first?
In what order did you....?
What procedure did you use?
What color/temperature/weight/size was it?
What made you think of doing that?


Relationships: Seeking relationships and patterns is an essential process of science...
How does this compare to... (other outcomes, procedures/experiments)
If______happened, what happened to____?
Where have you seen something like this before?
In talking to other students, who else got similar result?
What order does that usually follow?
What seems to be a common element in all your findings?
Where/When/How do you usually find these?


Application: Applying knowledge is generally acknowledged to be a true test of understanding, as well as the surest way to truly know something
How could you use this?
What problems could solve this?
Where can we find exmples of this in the real world?
If you wanted to do________, how would this idea/knowledge/finding/ experiment help?
What machine could you build that would do this?


Speculation: Here students must go beyond the data and information given, abstracting to new and unusual situations....after a student makes an assertion, a teacher might ask a speculation question such as...
What if you ... changed/eliminated/added/mixed/waited?
What would it take to prove that?
If you wanted to prevent that from happening, what would you do?
If that's true, then...
What might be inside that black box?


Explanation: Communicating an idea, process, or theory to clarify both the nature of the phenomenon and how it occurs...

How does that work?
What causes that to happen?
How would_____cause____?
How would you change your explanation if I changed this part of the apparatus?
How would it affect your explanation if I_____?
How does your explanation fit this other phenomenon?