To Enhance Conceptual Understanding

ENERGY

• Was energy used in this investigation?

• Where did the energy come from or go to?

• Did the energy change forms?

• How do you know what energy was involved? What evidence so you have?

SYSTEMS & INTERACTIONS

• Can you identify a system and its parts?• What is the function of the system?• Is the system essential? Why or why not?• Are all of the parts of the system essential?• How do the parts of the system interact to allow

the system to accomplish its function?• Can this system interact with other systems?

When, how and why?

CHANGE

• What change occurred in this investigation?

• What caused the changes?• What stayed the same in the

investigation?• What was the rate of change? Did change

occur quickly or slowly?• Could you do something to change the

rate of change?

PROPERTIES & PATTERNS

• What properties did you observe?

• What makes the object or event we observed different from anything else?

• What patterns did you observe in this investigation?

• Could you use patterns you observed to make predictions?

MODELS

• How is this model similar to the real world?• How is this model different from the real

world?• What does this model show?• What are the limitations of this model?

What does it not show?• How could this model be improved?• Who might use this model? What would

they do with it?