Evaluating Evidence

This page is intended to help students evaluate the evidence presented in the analysis of their science GCSE investigations. It has been written to assist students following the London GCSE Syllabus, but can be used by others.

Index

	What the Syllabus says
	What you should do
	Sub-headings for your Discussion
	Check List

First of all what does the syllabus say? Well, here it is:

Make a relevant comment about the procedure used or the evidence obtained. 2a.

Comment on the accuracy of the observations or measurements, recognising any anomalous results. 4a.

Comment on the suitability of the procedure and, where appropriate, suggest changes to improve the reliability of the evidence. 4b.

Comment on the reliability of the evidence, accounting for any anomalous results, or explain whether the evidence is sufficient to support a firm conclusion. 6a.

Propose improvements, or further work, to provide additional evidence for the conclusion, or to extend the enquiry. 6b.

The numbers at the end of each paragraph represent the level you will achieve if you have fulfilled the criterion given in the paragraph.

These guidelines show marks 2, 4, 6. If you have written enough to score 4 but not quite enough to get 6 you will end up with a level 5. Level 6 is the highest level which you can get.

Back to Top of Page

Now for what you should do:

1. firstly decide whether your method was the best possible one;
2. secondly, explain how you could improve the method;
3. thirdly decide whether your measurements were sufficiently accurate;
4. fourthly say if there were any results which did not fit into the pattern;
5. fifthly explain why you got these funny results;
6. sixthly say what experiments you could do to find out more about this topic;
7. lastly check that you have met the marking criteria given above.

Your discussion could have the following sections:

	Analysis of Results
	Conclusions
	Evaluation

Information about what to include under these sub-headings is on the main investigations page.

Back to Top of Page

When you have written the first draft of you discussion use the check list given below to ensure that you have included everything:

	Back to Top of Page.
	Return to Investigation Page.