EDT+674+Chapter+Summary


 * Chapter 11 - Generating and Testing Hypotheses**

This chapter focused on improving student achievement by emphasizing students' ability to generating/testing hypotheses and forming sound conclusions. The emphasis was driven by a few key suggestions. First, make sure students can explain their hypotheses and conclusions. Second, make sure you employ a variety of tasks to help students form their conclusions and test their hypotheses.
 * __Overview:__**

Furthermore, the chapter categorized six tasks that teachers can use to help students generate and test hypotheses.


 * Systems analysis** - Help students understand how different systems work together to create whole systems. Study how changes in one area impacts the whole system.

Sample website; [] Smog City


 * Problem solving** - Students focus on the different problems, roadblocks to solutions, and suggest best alternatives to solutions.


 * Historical Investigation** - Students explore hypotheses to problems of the past and develop conclusions about resolutions. Students could analyze how specific solutions impacted future events.

Sample website: [] Helps students use primary resources to complete meaningful activities for learning.


 * Invention** - Students examine how human needs have precipated certain inventions. They create a solution to problems through inventing.

Sample website: [] Builds bridges, dams, and other structures.


 * Experimental inquiry** - Students observe a phenomena, develop a hypothesis to explain how an invent happened, and conduct an experiment to observe and form an logical conclusion.


 * Decision making** - Students analyze different criteria, assess the drawbacks/benefits of different choices, and determine the best choice.

Sample site: [] Helps students understand weather and wind patterns by engaging them in a simulation to sail around the world.

__**Role of Technology:**__ Technology can play a vital role in helping students develop/test hypotheses, and forming conclusions. A sample of three strategies were outlined in the chapter that illustrated the role of technology in developing student achievement through generating and testing hypotheses. Here is a summary of the three methods:

Allows the student to categorize, gather, and analyze data. The example described a problem about a personal finance issue. A person inherited a sum of money and the teacher asked the student to use the software to illustrate differents ways of spending/saving the money. Using that data, the student was asked to form a best case scenario from the information.
 * Spreadsheet software**:

The software creates charts and graphs that clearly demonstrate key points. However, setting up the charts/calculations can be a tedious task.

Collecting/analyzing data can be an important process in helping students understand problems and their environment. The example in the book described a teacher who inquired about the problem of acid rain. Students collected pH data in different water sources in their community and organized the data in a chart. Through graphs, illustrations, and comparisons of the data, students were able to form conclusions about acid rain in their community.
 * Data collection tools:**

Resources and interactive gaming help students to form the knowledge base for problems and solutions in many subject areas. Simulation software can also be used as a means to help students develop and test their hypotheses. Technology can provide an important motivating tool to improve student achievement as it presents learning to the student in the form of a video game. The example that was given in the chapter described a teacher who used a World War II simulation to help students understand the political, economic, and diplomatic causes of the war. It is available at [|www.making-history.com].
 * Web Resources:**