Investigating in science resources

Students answer five questions interpreting data on temperature decrease in three different types of cups.

This practical task requires students to use a simple star map to point out the apparent location of stars or star groups during daylight hours. Students also use the star map to show where the Southern Cross would be situated at different times of an evening.

Students plot the positions for three different stars at three different times during the evening. Students use this information to answer questions about star movement around the South Celestial Pole.

Students are provided with a diagram showing layers of rock and three possible results of changes that could occur. Words and phrases are provided to help students answer several short answer questions about the possible cause of the changes.

Students view four sequential diagrams on fossilisation, and then write explanations about this process using the diagrams and their own knowledge.

Using the principles of fair testing, students identify four factors that could affect the time it takes for electric jugs to boil water.

This whole investigation requires students to find out how spring stretch is affected by different masses pulling on it. There is also a section for planning a similar investigation and a processing section using some provided data.

Students read a passage about a proposed fair test and then list four variables that need to be controlled.

Task: students, in small groups, discuss a concept cartoon about rolling cans, before making a prediction about which will roll further. Assessment focus: making predictions about friction.

Task: Make a sound gun and use it to investigate what happens to a candle when the end of the sound gun is tapped. Assessment focus: sound waves.

Students investigate energy transfer by colliding marbles, explaining their observations, and what happens to the energy of the moving marble on impact.

Students are asked to explain why the Southern Cross appears not to be in the same place in the night sky that it was a few months previously.

For this practical students make observations about dissolving, and plan and carry out an investigation to find out what makes sugar dissolve more quickly.

Describe methods for speeding up and slowing down melting of an ice cube using one of three provided objects, and explain why the methods would work. Assessment focus: planning an investigation.

Students read some information about testing the absorbency of different papers. They outline two features that need to be kept the same if the tests were to be fair.

Students answer five questions about 'fair testing' for an outlined investigation.

Students are given information and a diagram about a drink bottle overflowing when it had been put into the freezer. Students are asked to explain why this happened and how they could prevent it.

Task: Plan a fair test to see if adding salt water to water affects how long it takes to freeze. Assessment focus: managing variables.

This practical task requires students to carry out three tests to find out if each element is a metal or non-metal.

Students outline a test they could do to show if a substance is a metal or not.

Students are given an experimental setup of heating water with a burning peanut and are asked how they could change this in three ways to get a greater temperature increase. Students are also asked to give two important experimental conditions that should remain the same if the experiment was repeated.

Students identify the variables to be kept constant, and the variable to be different, when they plan a fair test to show if green plants need light to grow.

Task: Order fruit according to size and number of seeds, make a generalisation about the pattern and use this to predict whether a fig has small or large seeds. Assessment focus: pattern seeking.

Students use the Modified Mercalli intensity scale to assign magnitudes to three described earthquakes. Then they interpret data about the distance from an epicentre, and explain why, from given information, one earthquake might be more damaging than another.

In this NEMP task students conduct a test to identify whether a number of substances are acid, base or neutral. They also answer a question about neutralising. Assessment focus: testing acid or base.