Curiosity drives science. That’s the starting point for a teaching method called Claim, Evidence, Reasoning, or CER, which helps learners build real explanations instead of just guessing answers.
MIT’s Kerry Emmanuel put it simply in an interview: “At the end of the day, it’s just raw curiosity. I think almost everybody that gets seriously into science is driven by curiosity.” That curiosity — the desire to explain how the world works — is what this framework tries to channel in the classroom.
Starting with a simple question about air
Imagine a unit on matter.
Students observe solids and liquids. They learn that matter has mass and takes up space. Then comes the twist: air is not obviously matter.
Curiosity leads to the question of whether air is matter.
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The question is clear: air is either matter or not.
Learners now have a reason to investigate.
They need data. Maybe they weigh a basketball, pump more air into it, and weigh it again. The numbers tell a story.
Under the CER method, an explanation has three parts.
A claim answers the question.
Data supports it.
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Reasoning connects the evidence to the claim using scientific principles.
A student might write: Air is matter (claim). The ball got heavier each time we added air (evidence). This shows air has weight, which is a property of matter (reasoning).
The explanation gets stronger if they also show that air takes up space — the other key property of matter.
Why CER isn’t easy for students
Writing explanations this way doesn’t come naturally. Teachers need to introduce the format explicitly and model it. Pupils need practice throughout the year.
Jeff Rohr, a fifth-grade teacher in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, uses an Audi commercial to introduce the CER approach. He asks the class to identify the claim, evidence, and reasoning in the ad — where a little girl claims her dad is a space alien. It’s a low-stakes way to learn the structure before applying it to science.
Using NASA’s Curiosity rover as a real-world example
The idea that explanations drive science can be illustrated with NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover. After watching a video about the mission’s science goals, learners can discuss what claims the rover is testing, what data it collects, and how scientists reason from that information.
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This connects classroom work to actual scientific practice.
The rover’s name itself — Curiosity — reinforces the point.
As students work with the method throughout the year, they get better at distinguishing between a simple observation and a real explanation. The format forces them to think about why the evidence matters, not just what it says.
One teacher noted that they initially want to skip the reasoning step. They think the evidence speaks for itself. But reasoning is where the science happens — it’s the rule that connects the data to the claim.
Without it, you just have a fact, not an explanation.
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