Planning an investigation and evaluating the evidence

From question to plan

A full plan names five things: the question, the variable you change, the variable you measure, the variables you control, and how you will record results. Writing them as a numbered list is both faster and easier to mark than a paragraph.

Making a prediction

A prediction says what you expect and why: “the warmer the water, the faster the sugar dissolves, because the particles move faster.” A prediction without a reason is only a guess.

Evaluating

After the results, ask three questions. Did the evidence answer the question? Was anything unfair or hard to measure accurately? What would you change next time? Good evaluations name a specific weakness — “the timer was started by hand so each reading could be out by half a second” beats “we made mistakes”.