Performance Descriptions: Middle School
New York City Performance Standards

Scientific Investigation
The student demonstrates scientific competence by completing projects drawn from the following kinds of investigations, including at least one full investigation each year and, over the course of middle school, investigations that integrate several aspects of Science Standards 1 to 7 and represent all four of the kinds of investigation:

a Controlled experiment.
b Fieldwork.
c Design.
d Secondary research, such as use of others’ data.

A single project may draw on more than one type of investigation.
A full investigation includes:

  • Questions that can be studied using the resources available.
  • Procedures that are safe, humane, and ethical; and that respect privacy and property rights.
  • Data that have been collected and recorded (see also Science Standard 6) in ways that others can verify, and analyzed using skills expected at this grade level (see also Mathematics Standard 4).
  • Data and results that have been represented (see also Science Standard 7) in ways that fit the context.
  • Recommendations, decisions, and conclusions based on evidence.
  • Acknowledgment of references and contributions of others.
  • Results that are communicated appropriately to audiences.
  • Reflection and defense of conclusions and recommendations from other sources and peer review.

Examples of projects through which students might demonstrate competence in scientific investigation include:

  • Analyze de-icers for relative effectiveness, cost, and environmental impact. 8a, 1a, 3d, 4d
  • Study different methods for cooking chicken considering health and aesthetics. 8a, 8c, 4c
  • Conduct a field study of monument degradation over time at a local cemetery. 8b, 1a, 3a
  • Adopt a stream and use that location to study habitat and water quality over time. 8b, 2d, 3a
  • Design a protective container for an uncooked egg using the concepts of force, motion, gravity, and acceleration and test the design by dropping the container (egg enclosed) from a one-story building. 8c, 1a, 1b
  • Research local climate changes over the last century. 8d, 3a
New York State Learning Standards for Math, Science, & Technology¹

Standard 1 Analysis, Inquiry, and Design
Scientific Inquiry

  1. The central purpose of scientific inquiry is to develop explanations of natural phenomena in a continuing, creative process.
  2. Beyond the use of reasoning and consensus, scientific inquiry involves the testing of proposed explanations involving the use of conventional techniques and procedures and usually requiring considerable ingenuity. p. 4
  3. The observations made while testing explanations, when analyzed using conventional and invented methods, provide new insights into phenomena. p. 5

Engineering Design

  1. Engineering design is an iterative process involving modeling and optimization finding the best solution within given constraints which is used to develop technological solutions to problems within given constraints. p. 5
National Documents which guided New York State and New York City
NRC National Science Education Standards² Project 2061, AAAS
Benchmarks for Science Literacy³

Standard A Science as Inquiry

Design and conduct a scientific investigation. Students should develop general abilities, such as systematic observation, making accurate measurements, and identifying and controlling variables. They should also develop the ability to clarify their ideas that are influencing and guiding inquiry, and to understand how those ideas compare with current scientific knowledge. Students learn to formulate questions, design investigations, execute investigations, interpret data, use evidence to generate explanations, propose alternative explanations, and critique explanations and procedures. p. 145

Standard E Science and Technology

Identify a problem or design an opportunity.
Propose designs and choose between alternative solutions.
Implement a proposed solution.
Evaluate the solution and its consequences.
Communicate the problem, process, and solution. p. 192

Chapter 1 The Nature of Science
1B Scientific Inquiry
Scientists differ greatly in what phenomena they study and how they go about their work. Although there is no fixed set of steps that all scientists follow, scientific investigations usually involve the collection of relevant evidence, the use of logical reasoning, and the application of imagination in devising hypotheses and explanations to make sense of the collected evidence. p. 12

Chapter 3 The Nature of Technology
3B Design and Systems
Design usually requires taking constraints into account. Some constraints, such as gravity or the properties of materials to be used, are unavoidable. Other constraints, including economic, political, social, ethical, and aesthetic ones, limit choices. p. 51

¹ Reproduced by permission from Learning Standards for Mathematics, Science, and Technology. University of the State of New York and the State Education Department, Albany, NY 12234.
² Reproduced with permission from National Science Education Standards. Copyright 1996 by the National Academy of Sciences. Complete report available from the National Academy Press, 2102 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20055.
³ Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc. from Benchmarks for Science Literacy by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Copyright 1993 by American Association for the Advancement of Science.