Spider Investigation

This activity is designed to be a follow-up to the Spider Exploration activity, and to be done with students who are excited about and interested in spider webs. It’s meant for instructors who want to help their students learn how to conduct a more formal and structured investigation. Students compare quantity of spider webs in two different plant communities. The basic structure of this investigation is pre-planned, but students discuss and plan how to make it a fair test with the least amount of bias as possible.  Students also analyze their data, make explanations from their findings, discuss possible inaccuracies of their results, and reflect on science practices and investigation design.

Students will:

• Experience simple methods of data collection and data comparison.
• Use data to make explanations.
• Discuss and reflect on the limitations of their investigation, and how it might be improved.