Year 12 Investigating Science Test a Claim

In a modern society where information is abundant, it is also easy for misinformation to spread. In our Module: Fact or Fallacy, we look at how we can test claims, and use evidence to support or refute fallacies. Students in Year 12 Investigating Science developed scientific experiments to test claims made by advertisers and society.  The students tested the claims that a brand of chocolate chip cookies contain 40% choc-chips by mass, and a brand of adhesive strips could hold a certain mass. The students were surprised with which claims could hold up to scientific experimentation!

“In Investigating Science we have been learning about misinterpretations and misinformation in the real world and how science holds the ability to seek truth amongst this. The task we were given was to test a claim. The claim made by the 3M company is that their adhesive wall strips would hold frames, paintings and mirrors up to an identified mass to a wall under specific criteria. An experiment was conducted with multiple trials to gather results if the claim was true or not. It helped us apply our knowledge of scientific evidence by drawing conclusions from this data, identifying and acknowledging error and scientific evaluations of reliability and validity. Our conclusions were interesting because although the claim held true, it was not representative of the true function of the strips, therefore it was a source of error.”

Spencer Goldfinch

“In investigating science we have been learning how to determine whether something is an evidence-based claim. The best way to do this is through the scientific process of investigation. 

The task we were given was to test a claim. The claim that we were testing was that a brand of choc chip cookies contained 40% choc chips by mass. We did this by conducting an experiment. In this experiment, we dissected choc chip cookies, weighing only the choc chips then determining the percentage of choc chips to the cookies. It helped us apply our knowledge of scientific evidence by evaluating our experiment, for its validity, reliability, and accuracy. It allowed us to find out if the claim was supported by data. 

Our conclusions were interesting because not all cookies were true to this claim, however, the average was 41%.”

Jayla Li On Wing