Scientific Process Activity

Activity 1: Unusual Absences

1. Go the class website sciencejones8.weebly.com and click on Week 1 under the 1st
Quarter tab. Scroll down and find the section titled Scientific Process Activity. Click
the link that says Activity Website.
2. This will take you to the website we will be using for this activity. Click on the link titled
Activity 1 Unusual Absences. The link will take you to the home page for a fictitious
community health department.
3. Click the link on this page for You have (1) New Message and read the e-mail message
from the director of the health department.
4. After you have read the email message from the director and the attached letter from
Principal Parsons, discuss what testable questions you could ask to begin an
investigation. After you come up with a couple, record your questions on the
Investigative Report Form. When thinking of questions, make sure they are questions that
will help you determine whether school absences indicate a health problem.
5. After you have developed your testable questions, return to the directors email and click
on the link to the school districts Web site. Here you will be able to access the attendance
data for the communitys four middle schools.
6. Once you have viewed the attendance data, you will need to export the data to the health
department Web site where the data can be displayed in graphic form. To export the data,
click the Export Data button and type cohd.org into the Export Destination box.
7. You now have access to the Data Analysis section of the health departments Web site.
If you click View Data, you will see the same data tables that are on the school
districts Web site. If you click Create Graphs, you will be given a list of graphs to
choose from. You can view up to four graphs at a time to compare them. While selecting
you graphs, you should be looking for ones that help you make comparisons and answer
your testable questions. Make sure to note that not all of the graphs are in the same scale
so you should take this into consideration.
8. After you have selected graphs that you best think will help you answer your testable
questions, record which graphs you chose under the Evidence Collected section of your
Investigative Report Form.
9. Now you will analyze the data you have viewed under the Analysis of Evidence
Collected section of your form. Here you should think about what the data might mean
and possibly attempt to answer some of your testable questions.
10. In the Next Questions section your form, you should begin to think about other
questions that may have come up while looking through the data and record some of
these questions and/or describe where your investigation should go next.

Activity 2 Whats the Cause?

1. Go the class website sciencejones8.weebly.com and click on Week 1 under the 1st
Quarter tab. Scroll down and find the section titled Scientific Process Activity. Click
the link that says Activity Website.
2. This will take you to the website we will be using for this activity. Click on the link titled
Activity 2 Whats the Cause? You will be continuing your investigation into the
school absences among band members at Truman and Jackson middle schools.
3. Before beginning, record some of the testable questions that you came up with at the end
of the previous activity.
4. After you have recoded your questions, click on the new email message that you have to
read. After reading the email, click the link to the tables that list the results of interviews
with students parents. While reading the interviews, record some of the conclusions that
can be drawn under the Evidence Collection section of your form.
5. Next click on the link to the calendars of school events. While you are viewing these,
remember that you are looking for evidence that will help you develop better explanation
of the health problem. Think about how illnesses are spread. Compare the calendars and
record some of your conclusions on your form.
6. In the Analysis and Explanation of Evidence Section, analyze your findings and try to
answer some of the testable questions that you came up with at the beginning of the
activity.
7. Write down some possible next questions that you have after going through this activity
in the last section of your handout.