The Development of Evidentiary Reasoning in a Hominid Skull Evolution Laboratory for High School Students

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Fourteen
  In Roundtable Session: Learning Environments for STEM Education (Table 1)

Abstract

The NGSS advocate integrating disciplinary content with inquiry practices to support science learning. The study explored high school students’ evidentiary reasoning during inquiry in a biology laboratory task. Students compared the ages and physical features of a set of hominid skulls to draw a phylogenetic tree. Upon task completion, twenty students (sixteen 9th graders and four 12th graders) were interviewed about their learning experiences from this laboratory. We found that students accurately described the purposes of the inquiry activity and recalled multiple evidence sources to support their conclusions. However, they showed limited understanding of the boundaries of evidence and uncertainty. These results suggest a greater need to connect mechanistic reasoning to evidentiary understanding in laboratory inquiry.

Authors

• Shuangting Li, Purdue University
  Presenting Author

• Ala Samarapungavan, Purdue University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kari Clase, Purdue University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stephanie M. Gardner, Purdue University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nancy J. Pelaez, Purdue University
  Non-Presenting Author