Writing a Scientific Argument–How did I do?

In the past week, you analyzed fruit fly data in order to determine how two different traits were passed on from one generation to the next generation.  Consider the analysis and writing you did and reflect upon the process of developing a scientific argument using claim, evidence, and reasoning using the following prompts:
1.   One way I collaborated and connected with others was…
2.   I was successful in …
3.   One of my challenges was…
4.   One example of a FAIL I/we had was…
5.   One thing I will work to improve next time is…

Then, comment on at least TWO posts in this thread.  When you comment try to keep the conversation going by asking a question or saying something that makes others want to respond to you.

62 thoughts on “Writing a Scientific Argument–How did I do?

  1. 1. One way I collaborated and connected with others was when we made the posters. We worked together to show our ideas.
    2. I was successful in finding the correct inheritance pattern.
    3. One of my challenges was using numbers in my evidence and not generalizing.
    4. One example of a FAIL I/we had was when someone drew the dreamworks moon in the corner of our paper.
    5. One thing I will work to improve next time is focus. We got distracted when there was an inappropriate ad in the corner of the newspaper we were using.

  2. One way I collaborated with others was when I worked with my lab partner on the pedigree of Olga and Greg’s families. I was successful in working on my scientific argument. One of my challenges was that for pretty much all of this unit, I didn’t fully understand everything so it was hard for me to do some stuff. One example of a FAIL was when I didn’t understand that much so I wasn’t very helpful to my group. One thing I will work to improve next time is getting to fully understand what we are talking about early in the unit.

  3. 1. One way I collaborated with others was making our fruit fly posters, and our posters of a pedigree, and how diseases pass from generation to generation.
    2. I was successful in understanding how different types of heredity work, making punnet squares and pedigrees, and asking questions to deepen my learning.
    3. One of my challenges was putting my thoughts into words. I understand how heredity works, but I couldn’t speak about it
    4. One example of FAIL we had was when making a pedigree, we had to keep starting over because we didn’t make enough room, and I labeled some of the people as the wrong outcome.
    5. One thing I will improve next time is my conversational skills on how to talk about genetics.

  4. One way I collaborated and connected with others was when I was revising my first draft. I got peer review from my fellow classmates and that helped me write a better scientific argument.
    I was successful in my claim. My claim for my scientific argument for both yellow body an curly wings matched the data found in the study. I was also successful in my final draft, where it came to the point that every part of it was in-depth and well thought out.
    One of my challenges was for the evidence, I had to make a Punnett square for both claims and to make a Punnett square on a google doc, you have to draw it out, and that is tough.
    One example of a fail I had, was my first draft was very vague and didn’t have much evidence shown to go on.
    One thing I will work to improve on, is to make my rough draft more in-depth and to show a lot more evidence to prove my point.

  5. One way I collaborated and connected with others is when me and my group made the posters. I was successful in making punnet squares for my groups posters. One of my challenges was sometimes I did not completely understand the at first but overtime I started to understand. One example of FAIL I had was on my scientific argument some of my sentences were out of order or sounded funny and I had to fix. One thing I will work to improve is to make sure my scientific argument flows correctly.

    • How did you communicate and collaborate with others while creating the posters?

      How are you going to make sure your sentences in your argument coordinate and flow well together? What will be your first step?

  6. I collaborated and connected with others when I teamed up with people to discover our claim. We worked together to figure out the possible phenotypes and genotypes and if it matches up with the charts we were given. I also connected with others when I proofread other people’s arguments. I was successful in making my reasoning clear and understandable after proofreading and making sure my evidence was scientifically accurate. One of my challenges was translating what was in my head to paper and making it so other people could also tell what I was saying. One example of a FAIL I had was not being able to figure out the X-Linked notations on the computer. Next time I will try to add the notations for the X-linked Punnett squares on the computer instead of leaving them blank.

  7. 1. I collaborated with others when I made we were originally in groups that found the way the traits were carried.
    2. I was successful in waking a poster that showed how the trait was carried.
    3. One challenge I faced was turning the poster my group made into a written document. The information was all there, but it was a challenge to reformat it.
    4. I failed when transferring the information on the poster into paragraphs. When I wrote my first draft, I wrote it in separated main points and little explanation in between and then had to go back and condense it into paragraphs.
    5. Next time, I will try to improve my scientific argument and explain it better.

  8. The past week we learned how to write one of our first scientific arguments. We had to determined how to different trait were passed down from one generations to the next.
    One way we collaborated with others was first in groups we analysed the data and wrote claim evidence and reasoning, on a big piece of paper. This was a hard step because we had to get all our initial ideas on paper. It is nice to work in groups because we can see different points of view.
    One way I was successful was in asking others if there was anything I was missing our if they had any feedback to excel my writing. To me this is important because your argument may make sense to you but to others it is confusing. Also it is important to get feedback from others who may see things differently.
    Something that was challenging for me was to get out my initial ideas because once you have a base it is much easier to refine and refine until it is satisfactory but the hard part is to get our your first agruement.
    One example of a fail I had was I couldn’t get my paper to print because it would print lopsided. A way I overcome my fail was asking someone to print it for me and it worked.
    One thing I will try to improve next time is to try and make my Punett squares one the computer instead of draw them that way I don’t have to re draw them every time I make revisions

  9. 1. One way I collaborated and connected with others was when I looked over their argument, and they looked over mine. We gave each other feedback, which resulted in each of us having better and stronger arguments.

    2. I was successful when I had all of my ideas down, and I just had to form the sentences. Also, I was successful when analyzing the data for the curly winged trait.

    3. One of my challenges was analyzing the data for the yellow body trait. At first, I analyzed it incorrectly, which obviously resulted in incorrect data. Once I fixed that problem, everything made so much more sense.

    4. One example of FAIL my group had was realizing that the data we had analyzed for the wild body type was wrong. We had thought it was autosomal dominant. Once the whole class shared with each other, we soon discovered that it was X-Linked recessive.

    5. One thing I will work on to improve for next time is figuring out how to insert punnet squares and fill them out via computer, rather than drawing them on.

    • You might have had a misunderstanding about the trait then, but once it was explained you understood. I think using all of the knowledge you have gained since then however, you will analyze the data correctly next time.

  10. 1. One way I collaborated and connected with others was, having my friends peers edit my fruit fly argument. Also, my group members helped me understand the differences between autosomal and x linked in the beginning of this project.
    2. I was Succesful making a scientific argument that showed my thoughts on how to determine whether something was autosomal or x linked.
    3. One thing I struggled with was trying to figure out how to write a scientific argument. Also, I struggled to try to figure out how to correctly answer and rewrite comments that my peers had.
    4. One example of fail I had was, in the beginning, I could not figure out how to read the table with all fruit fly information and offsprings listed. I also could not determine whether it was being passed down through autosomal or x linked in the beginning.
    5. One thing I will try to improve on is figuring out how to best work through a comment that one of my peers wrote that I did not understand. Also, I should keep writing scientific arguments to improve on learning how to write scientific arguments.

      • Some strategies that I used were asking my group members for help. Initially, I really struggled with trying to figure out what type of heredity the wings and body colored were. After one of my group members explained it to me I understood it way better.

  11. 1) One way I collaborated and connected with others was working on analyzing the data with my group we all made one pedigree for our group.
    2) I was successful in analyzing the data for the curly body data and figuring out that the data is autosomal dominant. This took lots of tries since we had to make a punnett square for all of the data.
    3) One of my challenges was deciding the genotype of each fly since they could be carriers or dominant or recessive.
    4) One example of a FAIL we had was thinking that the mode of inheritance for wild body flies is atosomal dominant. Once the whole class shared we figured out that it was x-linked recessive.
    5.) One thing I will work to improve next time is taking more time to go over the characteristics to each mode of inheritance and then see if the data follows those characteristics. This would of helped us figure out the mode of inheritance.

  12. 1. One way I collaborated and connected with others was when we made the posters we all contributed something. Sophie did the writing, and Ariana and I helped with the evidence and the reasoning.
    2. I was successful in finding all the information and learning it quick. We put the information that we learned into our scientific argument and put it on our posters.
    3. One of my challenges was when I was working on a different project then I had to go right to a new one I had to learn everything super quick and it was a little challenging.
    4. One example of a FAIL we had was we thought the yellow body was autosomal dominant but it was x linked.
    5. One thing I will work to improve next time is checking over everything even for small details and double checking to make sure our answers are correct.

  13. 1. One way I collaborated with the people in my group was when we were stuck in one place we would talk it over and look back in our notes to try to figure it out. Another way we collaborated was we would sometimes have arguments on what the right answer was. Also when we were writing the argument we had to discuss what we were going to say.
    2. I think I was good at making the punnet squares once we found what type the flies were.
    3. One of my challenges was when we were writing the argument I (we) struggled with trying to find the scientific words. I also think we struggled with finding if the flies were Auto/X-Linked Dominant/Recessive
    4. One example of a fail we had was we did not work well at the beginning of the project.
    5. One thing that I will try to improve next time is to work a lot better in my group.

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