"National Science Teachers
Association, Global Environmental Change: Biodiversity," pp. 2-6;
11-15)
Sample #1:
Class Driving Question: What is some biodiversity of South Florida?
Team Driving Question: What is the biodiversity of the rock pinelands habitat of South Florida?
Team Investigation Question: What
is the biodiversity of inhabitants of slash pine tree cones from South
Miami, South Florida?
Example - Attending to the PBS Focus Investigation Scoring Rubric
Outline that demonstrates an appropriate course of action: It is clear that the Team Investigation Question is a narrower question derived from the Team Driving Question which is in turn derived from the broader Class Driving Question.
Once the Team Driving Question was attained, the PBS Biodiversity Curriculum Resource Project Scoring Rubric was used to develop an action plan for collecting information for the (preliminary study) to be completed by the team - First by checking information from selected areas:
See
1. Content Knowledge (A - G [i-vii])
2. Nature of Science Knowledge
By answering some of these questions as part of preliminary background search, the Team was gathering information to best determine a Team Investigation Question. Once a Team Investigation Question is determined, another Action Plan (this time for the Investigation was developed):
Some of the ample evidence of implementation of that action plan would include:
Data Collected: Since the team noticed slash pine trees in the FIU Preserve earlier in the semester, a plan to collect pine cones on a given day was carried out. Information from a particular resource, i.e., the NSTA, Global Environmental Change: Biodiverity text in this case helped establish a procedure (pp. 5-6) for working with the pinecones and the animals contained within the cones. A data table similar to Table 1. p. 6 was set up for the slash pine cones. A key including information from p. 11 helped the team identify the cone critters.
Sample #2:
Class Driving Question: What is some biodiversity of South Florida?
Team Driving Question: What is the biodiversity of plants associated with backyard lawns in South Florida?
Team Investigation Question: What is the biodiversity of plants found in four back yard lawn plots in two neighborhoods, i.e., West Kendall and Hialeah, in Miami-Dade County, South Florida?
Example - Attending to the PBS Focus Investigation Scoring Rubric
Outline that demonstrates an appropriate course of action: It is clear that the Team Investigation Question is a narrower question derived from the Team Driving Question which is in turn derived from the broader Class Driving Question.
Once the Team Driving Question was attained, the PBS Biodiversity Curriculum Resource Project Scoring Rubric was used to develop an action plan for collecting information for the (preliminary study) to be completed by the team - First by checking information from selected areas:
See
1. Content Knowledge (A - G [i-vii])
2. Nature of Science Knowledge
By answering some of these questions as part of preliminary background search, the Team was gathering information to best determine a Team Investigation Question. Once a Team Investigation Question is determined, another Action Plan (this time for the Investigation was developed):
Some of the ample evidence of implementation of that action plan would include:
Since the team was most interested in studying grass populations in two South Florida communities (i.e., where the students lived), a plan to set up a Systematic Inventory and Data Collection (see pp. 12-15, handout) was set up.
The procedure (pp. 12-13) was followed and data and graph similar to those (pp. 14-15) were determined for the backyard lawns studied by this team.