SBG Sheet Analysis

You can discuss and provide examples of social, historical, and cultural influences on science and visa versa.

I can't really see a parallel between out experiment and social, historical, or cultural influences. Maybe that we had a question that we wanted answered and we did an experiment to try to answer that question?

You can create analogies between science process and every day experiences and find connections across disciplines.You can deal with the frustration of creating/executing a research project and develop a positive attitude required to complete inquiry projects.

We definitely had frustration throughout the course of this experiment, but I feel that we dealt with it well. At first, we had a really hard time trying to decide what our experiment should be. We thought of a lot of cool experiments, but then we had to sit back and think about how we could carry it out, and then wold have to start over. Once we figured out an experiment to do , we had some trouble with how we would measure the wax without making a huge mess, or by getting it accurately measured. Overall though, I think we all maintained a positive attitude through the whole experiment.

You can examine/analyze the inquiry process using Harwood’s Activity Model for Inquiry and/or the Understanding Science flow chart. 

We used Harwood's Activity Model for Inquiry during our whole experiment. I really, really liked that this model allows you to go  through all of the points multiple times until your experiment is fulfilled, because I think we all know that no experiment is done by going through the Scientific Process step by step. There will always be trial and errors. I love that you do not have to go through a specific process with specific steps, like the one I always used for science fair projects. 

You can identify dependent and independent variables and develop experiments that require controlling variables. 

The variables in our experiment were pretty easy to identify. Our control was an unscented candle. Independent variables would be the different scents, and also the time we allowed the candles to burn. The dependent variable in our experiment would be the amount of wax produced at the end of the time we burned the candles.

Be able to clearly communicate to others.
Our group communicated fairly well. In the beginning, we had let each other know what scent of candle we each were going to bring, so we didn't end up with two of the same kind. We also communicated during the experiment, such as letting each other know how much time we had left or working together to pour the wax into a Dixie cup before the wax dried. 

Interpret and manipulate data in a variety of formats, such as technical drawings, graphs, tables, charts and, maps to analyze results and derive and defend conclusions using evidence.
We organized our data into a graph that showed the weight of the amounts of wax related to the burn time. We made it easy to interpret the results.

 

You can generate testable questions and design experimental procedures that are reliable, reproducible, and executable.
We had some problems with this at first, with the whole "testable questions" part. We would get really good ideas, but then couldn't think of a way to test it. As far as designing an experiment that was reliable, reproducible, and executable, I think we succeeded pretty well, I mean we were able to carry out the experiment! We probably could have gotten better measuring devices, and better candles, but overall, I think our experiment was reliable. 

You can collect accurate data on the natural world including observations using your senses and numeric data of length, mass and time. 
We weighed each candle before burning it, weighed the Dixie cup before pouring the melted wax into it, timed the burn time, and then put them into a chart. 

You understand the definition of science, theory, law, hypothesis, and experiment (you can find definition of these on the Understanding Science website) and how they relate to each other.
Science is a huge body of knowledge and also an ongoing process. Theory is a group of ideas that are used to explain something. Hypothesis is what a person proposes the outcome of the experiment will be. An experiment is the test that is done to answer the original question. It produces some sort of data that can be measured.  

You  know that science involves developing an understanding of the world through posing and answering questions.
The purpose of our experiment was to develop an understanding about scent of candles and if that had an effect on burn time. We didn't really answer that question, but it did bring up many other ones that we would have liked to be answered sometime, such as "Does color affect burn time?", or "Does size affect burn time?".

Know that scientific ideas are subject to change yet durable and that science cannot provide answers to all questions.
I agree with this. It is important to know that while science can answer many questions we have, those answers and not definite and may change if/when science advances further. Life could get pretty boring if all the questions were already answered!