What in the World?

Aerial photo of a river with a very large disk of ice on its surface.

CITY OF WESTBROOK, MAINE/YOUTUBE

DIRECTIONS: Come up with your own explanation to describe any phenomena you notice in the photo. Use the following steps as a guide.

Number 1

OBSERVE: Examine the image. What do you immediately notice? What do these observations tell you about what’s shown in the photo? Now take a closer look. Identify details that might provide additional information.

Number 2

EXPLAIN: What do you already know that could help describe what you see? Use your prior knowledge and the observations you made in Step 1 to explain what you see in the photo.

Number 3

DISCUSS: Compare your explanation with those of your classmates. How are your ideas similar to or different from those of other students? Which do you think best explains the phenomena shown? Why?

Number 4

REFINE: Use information from your discussions in Step 3 to change or strengthen your explanation. Research to gather additional information from other sources to further refine your ideas.

River with a large disk of ice on its surface. Text reads "What's really going on here?"
Check out the explanation for the back page of the November 18, 2019 issue.
Text set
Explaining Phenomena

Can your students explain what's going on in these attention-grabbing photos?

Article
What in the World?

Constructing Explanations: Analyze a photo of an intriguing natural phenomenon.

Article
What in the World?

Constructing Explanations: Analyze a photo of an intriguing natural phenomenon.

Slideshows (1)
River with a large disk of ice on its surface. Text reads "What's really going on here?"
What's Really Going On Here?

Check out the explanation for the back page of the November 18, 2019 issue.

Text-to-Speech