Title: Scientific Reasoning - Planning Descriptive and Comparative Investigations | Texas Gateway
Headings: Scientific Reasoning - Planning Descriptive and Comparative Investigations
Scientific Reasoning - Planning Descriptive and Comparative Investigations
Descriptive Vs. Comparative Investigations
Making Observations
Reset
Making Inferences
Asking Well-Defined Questions

Content: descriptive, comparative, and experimental. In this resource we will focus on descriptive and comparative. Much of science is conducted with investigations using observations that result in descriptive findings. This type of study is called a descriptive investigation. Astronomers, meteorologists, and geologists often conduct descriptive investigations. Classification of leaves is an example of a descriptive investigation. Observing animal behavior in nature is another example. Descriptive investigations use careful observations and measurements to develop findings. Science journals, science logs, and field notebooks are some of the tools scientists use to gather information for descriptive investigations. Comparative investigations involve collecting data on different organisms/objects/features, or collecting data under different conditions (e.g., times of year, temperatures, locations) to make a comparison.