CER Lesson

Claims, Evidence, Reasoning

GQ: How do you write a CER?

● Knowing how to format the CER

CERs

Looking for
Evidence or
clues to
answer the
Question

CER Graphic Organizer

Reasoning:

Can you find
all 8
differences in
these before
and after
photos?

Multiple Select

Which clues did you spot?

• door is shut

• glass is empty

• foot print

• blood on door

Is this living or non-living?

What evidence would you use?

Open Ended

What evidence would you use to say that this egg is alive or not alive?

Date

CER

1-5

CER

● A one sentence answer to the question you investigated.

● It answers, what can you conclude?

● It should not start with yes or no.

● It should describe the relationship between the dependent and independent variables.

CER

Evidence must be:

• Sufficient - use enough to support your claim.

• Appropriate - Use data that supports your claim, leave out information that doesn’t support the claim.

● Qualitative data - uses the senses (looks like, smell like, feel like)

● Quantitative data - Numerical (numbers)

CER

● Shows how or why the data count as evidence to support the claim.

● Provides the justification for why this evidence is important to this claim.

● Includes one or more Scientific Principles that are important to the claim and evidence.

Daily Work - In class

1. Fill in the words to

complete the parts
of the CER

2. Color the doodle notes

Word Bank

Question or Problem
phenomenon
CER
investigation

Claim
question or problem
one
argument
for or against

Evidence
Information
Facts, examples,
statistics, quotations,
hands-on investigations,
videos
data
supported
Sufficient
Appropriate

Reasoning
how and why
Analysis
Links
scientific principles
Explains
question

Question or Problem

●
About a phenomenon or results of an investigation

●
What you base your CER on

Claim

●
Answers the question or problem

●
Your argument

●
Statements that can be argued for or against

●
Only one sentence

Evidence

●
Your data shows your claim is supported

●
Sufficient (enough)

●
Appropriate (on topic)

●
Information from text of other sources: Facts, examples, statistics, quoations, hands-on investigations, videos

Reasoning

●
Shows how and why

●
Analysis of the evidence

●
Links evidence to claim

●
Uses scientific principles to support claim

●
Explains how the evidence helps answer the question

​Answer Key

Make sure your answers are correct before turning in your work.