Scientific Explanation Practice 1 Worksheet

Use the rubric and outline below to practice writing a Scientific Explanation. Once you understand the
process you will need to move up to the Practice 2 worksheet. Eventually, you should be able to write a
Scientific Explanation independently using the Mastery Worksheet.

Components:
There are three main components to a complete scientific explanation:
1. Claim: The claim makes a statement or conclusion that addresses the original testable question.

2. Evidence: The evidence supports your claim using scientific data. This data can come from an
investigation or from another source like observations, readings or someone else’s data, It needs to be
both appropriate and sufficient to support the claim. Appropriate data is relevant to the problem and
helps determine and support the claim. Sufficient means you have enough data to convince someone else
of the claim. Sufficient evidence might require multiple pieces of data.

3. Reasoning based on scientific principle(s): The reasoning links the claim and evidence and shows
why the data count as evidence to support the claim. This usually includes one or more scientific
principles.

Scientific Explanation Rubric: For each component you need to reach a score of 3.
Component
Claim: A conclusion
that answers the original
question.
Evidence—Scientific
data that supports the claim.
The data
needs to be appropriate
and sufficient to support the
claim.
Reasoning—A justification
that links the
claim and evidence.
It shows why the data
count as evidence
by using appropriate
and sufficient scientific
principles.
Source: Science as Inquiry in the Secondary Setting Edited by: Julie Luft, Randy L. Bell, and Julie Gess-Newsome
Score 3
Makes an accurate and
complete claim using clear
language and complete
sentences.
Provides appropriate
and sufficient evidence to
support claim.
Provides reasoning
that links evidence
to claim. Includes
appropriate and
sufficient scientific
principles.
Score 2
Makes an accurate but
incomplete claim. Language
could be clearer but uses
complete sentences.
Provides appropriate but
insufficient evidence to
support claim. May include
some inappropriate
evidence.
Provides reasoning
that links the claim
and evidence. Repeats the
evidence and/or includes
some—but not sufficient—
scientific principles.
Score 1
Makes an inaccurate or
unclear claim. Doesn’t use
complete sentences.
Provides inappropriate
evidence
(evidence that does not
support claim).
Provides reasoning
that does not link evidence
to claim.

1. Claim: Use your testable question to format your claim into a statement that answers it.
For example:
Testable Question: How does the amount of sunlight affect the growth in height of a bean plant?
Claim: Bean plants with the most hours of sunlight grow taller than bean plants with less hours of sun.

Testable Question:

Your Claim:
 2. Evidence: Summarize each piece of data supporting your claim in one or two sentences.
For example:
Plants grown in 7 hours of sunlight each day grew an average of 3 cm taller than the plants grown in 5
hours of sunlight and 5cm taller than those grown in 3 hours of sunlight. Plants grown in the dark did not
grow at all and their leaves turned yellow after 3 days.

3. Reasoning: Connect the claim and supporting evidence to a known scientific principle or idea.
For example: Plants use sunlight to make food through photosynthesis and the more light they get the
more food they are able to make and use to grow tall.