ACT Science Lessons

Contents

1. Introduction: the lab report

2. Data displays: tables, graphs, diagrams
3. The main idea of the experiment: variables and trends
4. Practice with difficult data displays
5. Using the text: clarifying information, methodology questions
6. The debate passage: reading for arguments
7. The debate passage: picturing the explanations
8. Approaches to the questions: finding relevant information
9. Approaches to the questions: skipping, process of elimination

Final plan of attack

Experiment passages (5 of these)

Spend 1-2 minutes reading the charts, tables, and graphs
Examine the structure (rows/columns, axes, scale)
Familiarize yourself with the numbers and/or graphs
Identify variables
Identify trends: turn the data into a story
Use the text to clarify parts of the data displays where needed
Go through the questions
Read, identifying what to find and where to find it
When in doubt, think back to variables and trends
Go to the text to answer questions on procedure and methodology
Use skip and come back where needed
Use process of elimination where possible
Scientific debate (1 of these)
Read the introduction to identify the topic of debate
Read each scientists hypothesis
Identify claims and establish main ideas
Picture the explanations even if you get goofy
Be cognizant of disagreements between scientists
Go through the questions
Read, identifying what to find and where to find it
When in doubt, recall the main ideas of each scientist
Use skip and come back where needed
Use process of elimination where possible
INTENSITY, MOMENTUM, POSITIVITY

ACT Science Lessons

1. Introduction: the lab report
The science section is strange and confusing. What are you supposed to do with all this
information? Do I have to read any of it? What does this have to do with science? These are
questions that almost all students will ask.

To pursue an answer, look at an experimental passage such as Passage II in 61C. Have the
student look at each part of the passage and describe what he or she sees. In particular, focus on
what each component part contributes to the passage as a whole.

The introductory paragraph, for example, gives background information on the topic examined
in the passage, in this case about the moon Ios volcanoes, and a brief note on the purpose of the
experiment, in this case to determine the materials ejected from the volcano.

The rest of the passage is split into three separate studies.

Each study has a text component, which outlines the methodology used to set up the experiment
and gives brief summaries of the tables and graphs below, and a data component, which
illustrates the results of a particular experiment, from specific data points to overall trends.

Ask how these different component parts relate to each other in order to form the whole of a
passage. Build toward an understanding that each passage discusses an experiment. The structure
of the passage is therefore one of an abbreviated lab report. It includes the purpose for carrying
out an experiment, the methods through which particular studies are produced, and the results of
those studies.

What might be missing from this passage that a student might include in his or her lab report?
Try to draw on the students experience in science class. Would this passage be sufficient as a
lab report to get a good grade?
No. We are missing a conclusion. The experiment was carried out with a purpose: to find an
answer to a question or investigate a topic. What have the results of the experiment told us?
What trends lie in the data? What interesting findings could the scientist communicate to the
public, or to other scientists in the field?

The science section (except for the debate, of course) is therefore a science experiment section,
rather than a science test on chemistry, physics, and biology.
The students task as a test-taker is twofold: first, to familiarize herself with the methods and
findings of the scientists; second, to find the trends which would constitute the conclusions that
are missing from these brief lab reports.
ACT Science Lessons
2. Data displays: tables, graphs, diagrams

The purpose of this lesson is to get students familiar with the most important part of the
experimental science passage: the data displays.
These displays present the results of the experiment, and they often pack a lot of information into
a small space. In many ways the key skill that the science section tests is non-verbal reading
comprehension.
A focus on data can also simplify science passages that can be intimidating at first.
Start with an experimental passage that has little text, such as passage III in 54D:
Have the student look over the table, and then ask some basic questions:

Tell me about Table 1.

What do you see on the top row? What about the first column?
Tell me about the numbers. Why do they change from row to row, and column to column?
Do you see any relationships between the numbers in one column and the numbers in another
column?

Then do the same thing with Figure 2, with questions that are targeted to the graph.
What are some of the first things you notice on this graph?
What do you see on the x axis? What is its scale? On the y axis? What is its scale?
Tell me about the line on the graph. How would you describe it?
What do those points with the molecules mean?
Is the line telling you anything interesting?

Keep things simple. The goals of this close reading of the data displays are threefold:
1. Get students used to familiarizing themselves with the given information. Simply running
ones eyes over the numbers and aligning them with the different categories, or following
a graph as it moves along particular x and y axes, can be useful for the student to get his
bearings. Some basic familiarity can make many question types, especially data lookup,
less difficult.
2. Develop students perception of relationships: how does y change as x changes? How
does one column change as another column changes? Is there a discernible trend, or not
really?
3. Use this exercise to demystify the science section further: all were dealing with are some
changing numbers on tables and graphs. This is a simplification, but the majority of
 questions on the experimental passages ultimately come down to that, and its useful to
give students a center of gravity on these passages.

After youve finished this process, try the questions.

They might not get every question, but I think those three of the five are doable. Show how much
you can get without reading any of the text. Prioritize tables and graphs: these tell you about the
results of the experiment, and most questions just ask about those! Then try it with another
passage (maybe passage IV from 54D).

The most important thing is to give students a specific plan of attack. For now, get them to focus
on the data dont even read the text.

Continue to practice. Most of the passages in 61F are useful, for example.

ACT Science Lessons

3. The main idea of the experiment: variables and trends

After students get stronger with data interpretation, I like to add in more of a conceptual frame.
We have so far emphasized that the science passage is a lab report that presents the procedures
and findings of an experiment. But what is an experiment? Its a simulation of reality used to
determine the impact of changes in an independent variable on a dependent variable. The main
idea of an experimental passage would be, therefore, the trends illustrated by graphs and
tables: as the mass density of a string increases, its frequency when struck decreases, for
example.

Here are some questions to ask to push to this point:

What is an experiment?
What is a hypothesis?
What are variables?
What is a control?
What is an independent variable? A dependent variable?
How can you define a hypothesis using independent variable and dependent variable?
What is an experiment designed to do?

Introduce this point with a new set of tables and graphs (e.g. passage VII from 54D).

This time, when youre examining the table, ask the student to identify the variables. Which are
independent? Which are dependent? Now, the changes in each row and column correspond to
relationships between different variables.

What is the relationship between vibrating length and frequency?

What is the relationship between mass density and frequency?
What is the relationship between weight suspended and frequency?
What conclusions could you make from the results of the experiment?
Move on to the next table. In this case, a lot of the variables are repeated, so you wont find new
trends. The question here is, how does this table differ from the previous one? What is the
relationship between the material and the frequency?

At this point, having looked at the tables and graphs and made note of the trends that relate
independent and dependent variables, you have a good first read and can go to the questions.
Not all passages will have clear relationships like these, but the ones that do often ask a lot of
trend-based questions. You should have the student focusing entirely on reading the data
displays, and he or she should be able to get the vast majority of the questions right.

ACT Science Lessons

4. Practice with difficult data displays

As you practice with students, I find it helpful to work from passages which feature unusual or
difficult data displays.

It can be helpful to review different types of relationships between data: direct and inverse
variation; linear, exponential, and logarithmic growth; linear and logarithmic scale. But in
general, the trends students are asked to find are pretty simple.
different sorts of correlations on graphs and different structures of tables and graphs. A lot of the
difficulty comes in the novelty of the data displays: weird multi-axis graphs, tables that take up
half a page, and so on. Below Ive listed different types of correlations and structures alongside
passages which include those.

Students should still do the same data analysis: what is being measured? What observations can
you make? What relationships do you see? Do you see any exceptions to dominant trends? And
so on. Practice making conclusions (to the extent possible) from the given data. The emphasis
should be on non-verbal reading comprehension: the text is a supplement. You dont need to
have students identify a graph as featuring exponential decay; its just helpful to be exposed to
different things.

Data relationships

Positive correlation
Negative correlation
Direct variation
Inverse variation
Linear growth
Exponential growth
Logarithmic growth
S-shaped growth
Exponential decay
No correlation
Linear scale
Logarithmic scale

Data structures

Line graphs

ACT Science Lessons

5. Using the text: clarifying information, methodology questions

ACT Science Lessons

6. The debate passage: reading for arguments

ACT Science Lessons

7. The debate passage: picturing the explanations
ACT Science Lessons
8. Approaches to the questions: finding relevant information
-What and where
-Reverting to general trends and arguments

ACT Science Lessons

9. Approaches to the questions: skipping, process of elimination