Classroom Cases

Explore our cases to see productive uncertainty unfold in the classroom. Cases were developed to exemplify and connect with specific tools we have developed for different phases of investigation work.

Each case includes:

A brief overview with context.
An illustration of how productive uncertainty emerges, supported by classroom structures, resources, and teacher moves.
“What We See:” highlighting important uncertainty, resources, and moves at play.
Reflection questions that help you reflect on your teaching practices in light of your learning from the case.

We will continue to post new cases here. Please let us know whether they’re useful, what you use them for, and other kinds of cases you would find helpful.

Featured

Tools for educators

“See this?” How Gesture, Investigation Materials, and Visual Resources Can Support Explanation

Tools for educators

Grade 2
Maya and her classmates draw on materials and gestures as they develop mechanistic explanations of maple seed travel.

Tools for educators

“Those Air Bubbles Are Like Secret Steam Tunnels”: Using Resources to Support Explanation

Grade 2
Lauren uses a read aloud to help students build from their investigation findings toward an explanation of why cake batter becomes (and stays) solid after being baked.

Leveraging Student Expertise: Collective Sensemaking in Claims and Evidence Conversations

Grade 5
Students make claims about what factors matter for decomposition. They use evidence from an investigation to support their claims, and they begin thinking about explanatory mechanisms for why a particular factor matters, making connections to the life cycle of mold.

Ambiguity in Evidence: “It Melted but It Didn’t Wanna Lose Its Shape”

Grade 2
Students engage in multisensory exploration to generate claims about whether chocolate chips are solid or liquid after heat is applied. They support their claims with evidence from their investigation and grapple with the usefulness of the terms “liquid” and “solid.”

Resourceful Decision-Making: Supporting Children’s Engagement in Planning Investigations

Grade 2
Students use diverse meaning-making resources to plan an investigation to test whether a seed travels by sticking to animal.

How Far is Far Enough? Connecting Claims, Evidence, and Explanation

Grade 2
Students make claims about whether a focal seed travels by wind. They support their claims with evidence from an investigation, and they begin to think about mechanisms that might matter for how the seed could travel by wind.

Classroom Cases

Check Back! More cases are coming soon!

Investigations Project