Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune in: What is a research question?

20 minutes

Find out: How to develop a research question

15 minutes

Take action: Develop a research question to ignite change

5 minutes

Reflection

We recommend you complete the previous lesson in this unit prior to this lesson.

Tune in: What is a research question? (10 minutes)

Step 1.

Listen to the beginning of the MOAH episode ‘Sea the Weed’ from 0-4:11 mins. The transcript for this section can be found in the Student Worksheet, as well as in the link provided.

Ask students the following questions:

What did you think when you heard the phrase ‘Sustainability is a target, but regeneration is an action’?
What do you think the purpose of scientific research is?

Step 2.

Explain to students that scientific research tells us HOW to be sustainable, but we need people to act on that knowledge in order to actually make something happen that makes a difference. We can use the scientific method to create social change in much the same way we can use it to conduct a specific science experiment.

Step 3.

Watch the video from AIME:

(Please note this video makes reference to seaweed sex to explain the crayweeds process of reproduction. Please pre-watch to ascertain its suitability for your class.)

Seaweed Hoodie (https://vimeo.com/768311543)

Step 4.

Show students the image below and ask: What do they think the overall research question is that AIME and its partners are trying to answer?

Possible responses:

Low Level - How can we reforest the sea?
High level - How can the creation of a compostable seaweed hoodie allow us to reforest Sydney's coastline?

Explain to students that developing a good research question is the first major step in conducting any type of research using the scientific method.

Find out: How to develop a research question

Step 1.

Revise the scientific method with your students to ensure they know the steps

Phase 1 - Observe and develop a research question.
Phase 2 - Form a hypothesis or prediction.
Phase 3 - Plan an experiment.
Phase 4 - Complete the experiment and collect data.
Phase 5 - Evaluate your data and draw conclusions.
Phase 6 - Communicate your findings.

Source

Step 2.

Invite students to have a brief discussion on the following questions (either as a class or in small groups):

How do research questions help scientists focus their attention?
- Suggested response: Research questions provide a clear objective to pursue by narrowing down the focus of the investigation.

What are the benefits of having a narrow focus?
- Suggested response: Allows scientists to have a clear objective. For example, studying the broad topic of climate change and its effects on the environment would be challenging due to its wide-ranging impacts. However, by formulating a specific research question like "How do increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere affect corals in the Great Barrier Reef?" researchers can concentrate their attention on a particular aspect. This focused approach allows them to channel their energy and resources into obtaining clearer and more manageable results, leading to a deeper understanding of the specific relationship being studied.

What are the downsides of having too narrow a focus?
- Suggested response: When a research question is too narrow, the findings might only apply to a very certain context and not be able to be generalised to other situations, which limits how relevant the research is in the wider world. For example, a narrow research question might be, ‘What is the effect of a 0.5 degree increase in ocean temperature on the potato cod fish in the Great Barrier Reef?’ This also means you might miss important parts of the whole picture, such as the effect on the ecosystem and how the acidity of the water would also affect the creatures living there.

Step 3.

Show students the following video, which explains how to write strong research questions:

How to Develop a STRONG Research Question (https://youtu.be/71-GucBaM8U)

Step 4.

Research questions should always be open-ended and usually would start with a ‘How’ or ‘What’. A research question might have one of three aims:

To describe and explore a topic, issue or relationship and any observable patterns
- For example: How has TikTok influenced patterns of social change among young Australian adults?
To explain or test an approach and its impact
- For example: Which social media platform is more effective at driving social change among young adults?
To evaluate a problem or action and recommend possible future actions.
- For example: How could an organisation's use of TikTok be improved to promote wider social change among its users?

If you would like some more detailed information and examples for this process, please see the source of this method.

Opportunity for learning support: If you have opted to work on a single equity challenge as a class, work with the group as a whole to define some possible research questions and follow the process in the steps below to refine them into one or two key research questions.

Step 5.

Go back to the questions students developed about the seaweed hoodie project and use the information above to analyse them. It would be good to choose a low-level question and a high-level question or use the two provided in the Tune in section to compare how each hits the aspects of good questions.

Suggested Responses:

Response 1 - How can we reforest the sea?

Not focused - The whole sea involves many areas, climates, countries, continents, ecosystems etc. This makes the research unmanageable as there are too many components to consider effectively.
Incredibly hard to research - Options for reforesting the sea will be different in each different place. There will be different challenges, different opportunities and different people involved. Research would only be able to be conducted effectively to answer some of the questions.
Not feasible - Not able to be answered in a reasonable timeframe to make an impact and would require the use of a huge amount of resources.
Extremely broad - Not clear or precise enough.
Too complex - Too much going on and too much to develop.
Relevant - It is relevant to our current climate!

Response 2 - How can the creation of a compostable seaweed hoodie allow us to reforest Sydney's coastline?

Focused - The question is aimed at a single problem: reforesting Sydney's coastline.
Researchable - We can research what it would take to reforest Sydney's coastline and also how the creation of the hoodie can lead to this outcome.
Feasible - Able to be answered within a reasonable time frame. We know what it would take to reforest the coastline. We can answer how we get to this point in a relatively short amount of time.
Specific - Precise and clear.
Complex - We can develop the answer over the course of the project.

Take action: Develop a research question to ignite change

Depending on how you are using this lesson, this section could take multiple forms.

If you are using this lesson for students to follow the process of designing an experiment to ignite change, each Take Action at the end of the lesson will correspond to forming a different section of their overall experiment. This first Take Action will focus on them developing their research question.

You could choose for students to develop their own experiments, or you could conduct one experiment as a class, and each student could write their own report.

This is an alternative approach to teaching the scientific method that could result in some social change within your class or school community. Consider spending some time thinking about ways your class could create change within your community and encourage students to think creatively about how they could make a positive impact and measure it. If you want to focus on the scientific method more, we would suggest focusing on a class or year-level change through one experiment.

Some possible examples could be:

Does raising awareness about recycling within Year 8 increase the rate at which students use the correct bins?
Does an awareness campaign about fast fashion influence the clothing choices of Year 8 students?

Step 1.

Divide students into groups of 3-4. Ideally, this will be the group they work with for the remainder of the Igniting Change project. Ask each group to create two research questions for the project, reminding them to make their questions Focused, Researchable, Feasible, Specific, Complex and Relevant.

Step 2.

Share the questions with the class. Students evaluate each other's research questions using the following criteria:

Which questions are too broad?
Which questions are too easy to answer without the need for research?
Which questions make too many assumptions?
Which questions are too similar to one another?
Which questions could be combined to create a new question?
What’s missing?
Which questions will lead to answers that are most useful or relevant?

Step 3.

As a class, choose the research question which resonates most with the group, will have the biggest impact, and will also be appropriate to cover with your group.

Explain that over the course of the next four lessons, you will develop the rest of the project.

Reflection (5 mins)

Show students this quote and ask what Einstein is prioritising. Why might this be the case? What does this mean for the importance of good research questions?

If I were given one hour to save the world, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and 1 minute solving it. - Albert Einstein

Developing Research Questions

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