Teaching activity – The noisy reef
This level 5 resource illustrates how students can learn about observations and inferences through a scientific investigation.
About this resource
This resource provides an opportunity for students to discuss an actual science investigation without getting mired in technical detail or difficult concepts. Students will use their understanding of observations and inferences to think critically about investigations and strengthen their knowledge about hypotheses.
Teaching activity: The noisy reef
Mātauranga Māori
Reefs hold immense cultural and spiritual importance. Perspectives on reefs may vary; however, they reflect their deep connection to the natural environment. Reefs are often associated with traditional pūrākau, legends, and historical events, which have been passed down through generations. These narratives highlight cultural identity, values, and wisdom.
Notions about reefs:
Tangaroa: Tangaroa is the atua associated with the ocean, marine life, and natural water bodies. Reefs are regarded as the domain of Tangaroa, who is seen as the guardian and protector of these vibrant ecosystems. Tangaroa is revered for providing sustenance and resources.
Mana: Reefs are believed to possess mana, making them sacred and deserving of reverence and protection.
Kai: Reefs have been essential sources of sustenance for Māori since their arrival in Aotearoa. They provide a diverse range of seafood, including fish, shellfish, and seaweed, which form a significant part of the traditional diet.
Kaitiakitanga: Tangata whenua have responsibility as guardians and caretakers of the environment. This extends to the protection and preservation of reefs. Iwi actively engage in conservation efforts, advocating for sustainable fishing practices, marine protection areas, and the restoration of degraded reef ecosystems. For example, the collaboration of iwi and other disaster responders participating in the clean-up after the Rena grounding on Ōtāiti, the Astrolabe Reef.
Learning focus
Students develop an appreciation for how science investigations can build over time with rolling combinations of data gathering and inferences drawn from these observations.
Learning activity
The article Studying sound underwater is one of a collection of Science Learning Hub Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao articles within the context of The noisy reef. The article describes a recently completed New Zealand research project and provides an opportunity for students to discuss an actual science investigation without getting mired in technical detail or difficult concepts.
Get the students to read and discuss the article. Once they understand the investigation described, ask them to identify examples of observations that preceded the research and the inference that the scientists made from these observations, which then became the hypothesis they investigated.
Give them the following table, with only the left-hand side completed and ask them to put their observation and inference ideas in the first two rows.
Now challenge student to write research questions for the two different investigations that the scientists carried out to test whether their inference was supported by evidence.
Observations already made before the project started |
Crab larvae somehow find their way from the open sea to the reefs. Reefs generate a lot of sound as waves break over them.
|
|---|---|
Inference based on these observations (which then became the testable hypothesis) |
Crab larvae use the sound of the reef to navigate towards it from the open sea. |
Questions to investigate the inference/hypothesis |
Can crab larvae hear sounds? Can reef sound be heard from the distances at sea where larvae are typically found?
|
If you want to move the focus to Investigating in science, you could use one or more of the accounts of scientists’ work in The noisy reef context (see related resources) to stimulate students’ own investigative work related to relationships between sound and the activities of living things (including us). For example, students could:
- explore their own questions related to detecting and measuring specific properties of sound in different contexts
- investigate how and for what purposes, other animals navigate in specific environments, or how their activities generate and/or use sounds in the environment.
The nature of science research literature tells us that simply doing investigative work will not help build knowledge about what science is. Students also need opportunities to think critically about investigations (including real science investigations) if they are to progressively develop a “feel” for their complexity and their processes of logical argument. They do need to understand that hypotheses are not just guesses. Hypotheses are shaped to test inferences so that these can be confirmed, amended or rejected, as appropriate to the observations/new evidence gathered.
Insights about logical processes of investigation and argument support students on their journey to becoming scientifically literate – that is, able to participate as critical, informed, and responsible citizens in a society in which science plays a significant role. This is the purpose of science in The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum.
What are we looking for?
Can students differentiate between observation and inference in accounts of scientists’ work?
Do they appreciate that developing questions to test inferences is an important first step in gathering and interpreting data?
The noisy reef context on the Science Hub has a related article about how scientists investigated the noise that kina make as they feed. This article is called Noisy kina.
A second related article, Non-visual sensory systems of fish, describes scientists’ investigation of how sharks hunt by using electromagnetic fields generated by other animals.
Both articles could be used for further practice in identifying observations and inferences, and how relationships between them are used to shape investigation questions.
Other similar accounts of science investigations can be found on the Science Learning Hub. Examples include:
Hunting for honey’s healing powers
Differences in immune responses are triggered by different varieties of honey (the observation). This natural variation might mean that some honey varieties are better suited than other varieties to specific medical uses (the inference). This inference could be directly tested (students could discuss how that might work) but to be commercially useful scientists need to work out how the honeys differ biochemically. The exploratory method followed is outlined but results are not given. (They are probably commercially sensitive.)
Similar to the honey article, the new knowledge being sought here could have technological applications. In this case the initial observations come from mātauranga Māori (superiority of some harakeke varieties for different weaving purposes). The testable inference is that these differences in observed performance have structural causes that can be detected at the microscopic level. Again the research is exploratory rather than experimental.
Several different investigations are described in this article about skink conservation, each with its own set of observations leading to testable inferences/hypotheses. One difference in this example is that the methods used are experimental, with control groups where relevant. Another interesting difference is that the validity of the whole project rests on one overarching inference: that what happens to the common skink will also apply to endangered varieties of skink. Students could discuss the need for, and potential risks of, basing the research on this inference.
Teaching activity: Rolling marbles II (L3 & 4) Assessment Resource Banks
Teaching activity: Food webs (L5) University of Canterbury: Science Outreach Resources