During synthesis and conclusions, students reflect on each experience and investigation in relation to the issue, and share their claims and conclusions with each other. Teachers should plan for this to occur regularly throughout the MWEE. This learning and frequent reflection provides the foundation for the development of claims and environmental action that address the driving question and connect to the environmental issue.
Throughout this process, students should demonstrate understanding of their investigations and conclusions with their peers or the school community. This could involve multiple disciplines and be achieved in a variety of formats including discussion, journaling, class murals or bulletin boards, presentations, graphing, performing skits or songs, or creating art. All of this information should be compiled in a meaningful method to be later used during the development of an action project.
Watch the video on this page or view it HERE to see how the case studies apply synthesis and conclusions throughout their MWEEs.
“Anybody can collect data which always frustrates me with any kind of science project…What are they doing with the data? Even if they're analyzing the data, what are they doing next about the data?” Ms. Snavely
From the Toolbox
Developing synthesis and conclusions is an iterative process. The high school teacher, Ms. Snavely, used the below table to think through where synthesis and conclusions fit—ideally after every investigation. Students use the conclusions from each investigation to build an evidence-based claim and then identify a solution to address it. You could use a similar process to keep track of the flow from supporting questions to investigations to synthesis and conclusions. Download the Synthesis and Conclusion example HERE if your browser does not display iFrame.