How to focus on working scientifically in investigations: A KS1 and KS2 guide

What makes a good science investigation?

Whether you’re testing for materials that overcome friction or seeing how long different seeds take to sprout, a good science investigation is crucial for building working scientifically skills at KS1 and KS2. It helps pupils to ask questions, make predictions, think critically and draw conclusions - all of which are the foundations of the working scientifically skills. 

In this article, we’re breaking down what a good science investigation actually looks like, and how you as a teacher can formulate those working scientifically skills into smaller and more manageable steps. 

Start with an engaging and purposeful question 

A purposeful investigation begins with a question. At DE, we’ve been creating teaching resources for years now, so we know that the best questions to ask are those that feel relevant to your pupils’ lives. For example: 

• Which material will keep my teddy dry in the rain? 
• Do plants grow better in the light or dark? 
• What happens to our shadows throughout the day? 

Top tip: Give your pupils an interesting scenario and ask them to suggest a ‘What happens if…?’ question. For KS1, visual material can be helpful with modeling this. For KS2, ask pupils to share their ideas in pairs before suggesting them to the class. 

Make a prediction

This is where you can start to introduce scientific reasoning. What do your pupils think will happen in their investigations, and why? 

At KS1, pupils might make simple statements like ‘I think the metal will be the strongest’. At KS2, encourage pupils to build on this by using their prior knowledge to dig deeper. For example - ‘I think the metal will be the strongest because it doesn’t bend easily and it’s used in building materials’. This is also a really good way to refer back to prior learning and recap on essential knowledge before starting the investigation. 

Plan a fair test 

A fair test means changing one thing while keeping everything else the same. Remind pupils of this by using this structure: 

• What will you change? (independent variable)
• What will you measure or observe? (dependent variable)
• What will you keep the same? (controlled variables)

To help scaffold the test, you can use examples and model the language explicitly. 

Collect and record results

At KS1, this can be as simple as drawing what they see or placing pictures on a chart. By KS2, pupils should start using tables, bar charts and line graphs. 

• KS1: Use pictograms or class tally charts. 
• Lower KS2: Provide a ready-made table to fill in. 
• Upper KS2: Challenge pupils to design their own data table. 

Where possible, you can link to maths skills, and don’t forget to discuss why you’re using a certain graph type over others. 

Draw conclusions and reflect

At this step, pupils will be able to ask ‘What did we learn?’ and ‘How do we know?’ 

Encourage them to link their conclusions back to their original predictions and to think about whether the test was fair. What would they do differently next time? 

Sentence starters: 

• ‘My results show that…’ 
• ‘I think this happened because…’ 
• ‘Next time, I would…’ 

A good science investigation that targets the working scientifically skills doesn’t have to be complicated, but it should be purposeful. 

So, whether you’re teaching Year 1s to observe closely or guiding Year 6s through variables and data, every investigation is an opportunity to develop critical thinking and nurture disciplinary knowledge. 

At Developing Experts, we embed the KS1 and KS2 working scientifically skills throughout every lesson and unit. You can find out more and sign up to trial our resources by clicking here.