A SCALE science immersion unit on animals for kindergarteners helped educators learn it is possible for even the youngest learners to participate in evidence-based scientific inquiry. In an article published in Science & Children, January 2007, the SCALE team of outreach specialists and teachers in Madison, Wisconsin, explained how changing the way teachers responded to student answers that lacked support helped students search for evidence to back their claims. The unit used live animals and a charting system to record evidence-based data that the students contributed through the questioning strategies. When students offered unsubstantiated evidence, the teacher would ask, “How do you know?”
