MAKING SCIENCE A PART OF EVERYONE’S STORY
Lesson Plan

OBSERVER: Seeing, Sensing, and Inferring

NGSS-aligned middle school lesson to help students master the essential scientific distinction between observation and inference.
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NGSS-aligned middle school lesson to help students master the essential scientific distinction between observation and inference.

Watch Film  View Lesson 
Lesson Overview
Grades:
  • 6-8
Key Concepts:
  • Observation vs. inference
  • Scientific noticing
  • Patterns in nature
  • Evidence-based reasoning
Activities:
  • Film viewing and guided observation
  • Red frame environmental observation
  • Group discussion protocol (Talking Chips)
  • Observation → Inference analysis
  • Reflection writing
Time Needed:

3 classes x 55

minutes

Students watch scientists in the documentary OBSERVER model careful observation in unfamiliar environments. Students then practice similar observation techniques using red frames to focus their attention on the environment. Finally, students analyze how observations lead to inferences, helping them understand how scientists interpret evidence.

Standards Download Lesson

Status: Available for screenings. A global exploration of the centrality of observation to science and the human experience. The film crosses multiple disciplines, as well as oceans and continents, to give audiences insight into the drive to expand knowledge and see our planet and universe from new perspectives.

View Video Details

NGSS:

  • MS-LS2-2: Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
  • MS-ESS2-2: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales.
  • Science & Engineering Practices (SEP): Analyzing and Interpreting Data
  • Crosscutting Concepts (CCC): Patterns

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Ariel Raymond

Lesson Plan by

Ariel Raymond

Aveson Global Leadership Academy

Why I Chose this Film

OBSERVER shows scientists practicing authentic observation in a new environment. The red square is a tool to frame focus and reveal details that might otherwise be overlooked. These lessons help students observe like scientists and apply the same habits of mind.

How I Taught this Lesson

I implemented this lesson with 6th graders at the end of their introductory unit called “Thinking like a Scientist”. It came at the end of the unit, and took approximately 3 class periods to complete. Each class is 55 minutes long.

An extension of this activity could be developing questions based upon observations and inferences, incorporating the common phrase, “What do you notice? What do you wonder?”

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences under Grant No. 2122350 and 1 R25 GM139147. Any opinion, finding, conclusion, or recommendation expressed in these videos are solely those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent the views of the Science Communication Lab/iBiology, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, or other Science Communication Lab funders.

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