Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning (CER)
CER Definitions:
Claim: The answer to the question. It states what you think. State in the third person. No “I” statements.
Evidence: The actual observations, measurements, or quotes from the experiment, articles, or videos. Information should come from the data collection when using a lab.
Reasoning: Describes how the evidence supports the claim. It uses knowledge that is already known in the science class and real world knowledge to link the evidence to the claim.
CER Sentence Frames:
Claim Sentence Frames:
Evidence Sentence Frames:
Reasoning Sentence Frames:
CER Example:
Scenario:
Tom was found dead on his living room floor with a half glass of wine next to him. The autopsy report showed cause of death was overdose on heart medicine. Fingerprints from his brother Vern were found on both the wine bottle and heart medicine bottle. Traces of heart medicine were also found in the wine.
Question:
Who killed Tom?
Claim Example:
Vern killed tom.
Evidence Example:
The autopsy report shows that Tom died of a heart medicine overdose, vern’s fingerprints were found on both the wine and heart medicine bottle, and traces of heart medicine were found in the wine.
Reasoning Example:
The evidence proves that Vern spiked Tom’s wine leading to Tom's death.
CER Definitions:
Claim: The answer to the question. It states what you think. State in the third person. No “I” statements.
Evidence: The actual observations, measurements, or quotes from the experiment, articles, or videos. Information should come from the data collection when using a lab.
Reasoning: Describes how the evidence supports the claim. It uses knowledge that is already known in the science class and real world knowledge to link the evidence to the claim.
CER Sentence Frames:
Claim Sentence Frames:
- (Just write answer as a statement – see below for an example).
- ________________ causes __________________.
- ________________ is the reason for _______________________.
- _________________ and _________________ have many differences/similarities.
Evidence Sentence Frames:
- The text states __________________.
- According to the article ____________.
- In the article _______________ the author states ____________________.
- In the ______________ activity/lab it was observed that _____________________.
- A pattern that was discovered in the activity/lab was ________________________. For example, ______________________.
- It was discovered that __________________. For example, _________________.
Reasoning Sentence Frames:
- The evidence shows/proves ___________________.
- Since _____________________ (state evidence) was found this proves that ____________________.
- The ________________________ (state evidence) proves that __________________________.
- This is true because ________________________, proving that _________________________.
- This supports the claim because __________________________.
- This suggests/indicates that _____________________
- This is important because ________________________.
CER Example:
Scenario:
Tom was found dead on his living room floor with a half glass of wine next to him. The autopsy report showed cause of death was overdose on heart medicine. Fingerprints from his brother Vern were found on both the wine bottle and heart medicine bottle. Traces of heart medicine were also found in the wine.
Question:
Who killed Tom?
Claim Example:
Vern killed tom.
Evidence Example:
The autopsy report shows that Tom died of a heart medicine overdose, vern’s fingerprints were found on both the wine and heart medicine bottle, and traces of heart medicine were found in the wine.
Reasoning Example:
The evidence proves that Vern spiked Tom’s wine leading to Tom's death.