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Backyard Explorer 3 to 5 / Week 12 / Friday
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Week 12 · Citizen Scientist

Friday

The Explorer Report
// Your records help protect living things
⏱ about 15 min

Friday: The Explorer Report

Raven tapes a big sheet of paper to the workshop wall. Across the top she writes "Explorer Report".

Rocket brings the bar graphs, the habitat map and the best notebook pages.

Nova projects a cyan outline with seven boxes. "A report has parts," she says. "Fill one box at a time."

"Tomorrow," Rocket says, "we show the whole family what twelve weeks of looking found."

What a report is for

A report is a clear way to share your work. It tells what you studied, found and still wonder.

Scientists write reports so other people can learn from their work without repeating it.

A good report is honest, short and easy to follow. Pictures and graphs help.

Your report covers one place: your yard, your street or your park path.

It uses your own records. Nothing in it is a guess, unless you label it as one.

The seven parts

PartWhat goes in it
1. Title and placeA title, your name and the place you studied
2. What I watchedThe groups you recorded: birds, insects, plants, mammals or others
3. My dataA table of counts and one bar graph
4. One patternSomething your data shows, like a busy month or a common living thing
5. One changeA habitat change you found and what living things did
6. One way to helpA helpful change your family made or could make
7. What I still wonderOne honest question your records cannot answer yet
REPORT PARTS
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Which part holds your bar graph?
You are not sure why one month was busy. Where does that go?
What makes a report easy to follow?

Build it

  1. Take one big sheet of paper, or seven small ones. Write a box for each part.
  2. Fill part 1 with your title, name and place.
  3. Copy your best table into part 3. Draw or tape in one bar graph.
  4. Write one sentence for part 4. Start with "My data shows...".
  5. Write two sentences for part 5: the change, and what living things did.
  6. Write one sentence for part 6: the helpful change.
  7. Write one real question for part 7. Do not answer it.
  8. Read the whole thing aloud once. Fix anything a listener might not follow.
BUILDING THE REPORT
  • ?Gather your notebook pages, tables and graphs.
  • ?Write the title and the place.
  • ?Fill in the data, the pattern, the change and the way to help.
  • ?Write one question you still wonder about.
  • ?Read it aloud and fix unclear parts.
WHY THIS EXERCISEA report is built in order: gather, title, fill, wonder, then check by reading aloud.
A report shares what you studied, what you found and what you still ____.
Part 3 of the report holds your table and your bar ____.
Nothing in a report is a guess, unless you ____ it as one.
StatementTrue or false?
A report should include a question you cannot answer yet.?
A longer report is always a better report.?
Reading the report aloud helps you find unclear parts.?
Guesses can go in a report if they are labeled as guesses.?
WHY THIS EXERCISEGood reports are short, clear, honest about guesses and end with a real question.
Try it
Practice your report once for a mirror, a pet or a stuffed animal.
Time yourself. Aim for three to five minutes.
Pick one part you rushed. Say it again, slower.
Design the cover of your Explorer Report. Include the title, your name and the place.

Your report is ready! Tomorrow is Explorer Day. You present it to your family.

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