Science - Pattern Seeking

Pattern seeking in science involves children making observations or taking measurements to explore situations where a variable cannot be easily controlled. It often includes and is centred on a ‘big question’ for children to investigate. Our big question in Team LF was, ‘How does the planets distance from the sun affect its temperature?’

To conduct our research, we used the internet to find out the distance of each planet from the sun and each planet's temperature. We used our findings to draw the conclusion that as the distance from the sun increases, the temperature of the planets decreases. We also spotted an anomaly because we noticed that Venus did not fit the pattern. Venus has the highest temperature even though it is the second planet from the sun. Some of the children even explained why this was in their explanations below.