"In engineering, the goal is to design a system to cause a desired effect, so cause-and-effect relationships are as much a part of engineering as of science. Indeed, the process of design is a good place to help students begin to think in terms of cause and effect, because they must understand the underlying causal relationships in order to devise and explain a design that can achieve a specified objective." (p.88)
Cause and Effect
When students perform the practice of "Planning and Carrying Out Investigations," they often address cause and effect. At early ages, this involves "doing" something to the system of study and then watching to see what happens. At later ages, experiments are set up to test the sensitivity of the parameters involved, and this is accomplished by making a change (cause) to a single component of a system and examining, and often quantifying, the result (effect). Cause and effect is also closely associated with the practice of "Engaging in Argument from Evidence." In scientific practice, deducing the cause of an effect is often difficult, so multiple hypotheses may coexist. For example, though the occurrence (effect) of historical mass extinctions of organisms, such as the dinosaurs, is well established, the reason or reasons for the extinctions (cause) are still debated, and scientists develop and debate their arguments based on different forms of evidence. When students engage in scientific argumentation, it is often centered about identifying the causes of an effect.
Cause and effect sentences show a clear, direct relationship between events. They show how one event or action triggers an outcome. They may also show how an effect has more than one cause, or a cause has more than one effect.
Most of us probably had to do an experiment with plants in school. We examined what happened to our two plants (effects) depending on whether we gave or withheld from them proper light and water (cause).
Several changes took place to the script because of filming and casting difficulties. The crew planned to make the USS Bozeman a Star Trek: The Original Series-era Constitution class ship, similar to the original USS Enterprise. However, no model was available to use and the costs of creating a new one, along with costumes and props, were prohibitive enough that the plan was scrapped. Instead, the USS Reliant model created for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was used.[1] Greg Jein and Michael Okuda made the relevant changes,[6] removing the rollbar and adding sensor arrays,[1] resulting in it being described as a Soyuz class vessel.[6] The bridge of the Bozeman was a re-dressed version of the film series Enterprise bridge. It was then intended to get Kirstie Alley, then a co-star of Grammer's on the sitcom Cheers, in a cameo role behind Grammer in the USS Bozeman shots, reprising her role as Lieutenant Saavik from the movie The Wrath of Khan, but could not do so due to scheduling difficulties.[1] Rob Legato organized the large-scale miniature effects for the episode on set 10, with large-scale but low-detail versions of the Enterprise created along with just nacelle models for the Bozeman to collide with.[2]
The German dub of this episode starts with a hint to the opening line of Neil Simon's play The Odd Couple. The first sentence of each new loop starts with Riker saying "On Vulcan they built a monument in memory of someone who shuffled himself to death" which is a direct reference to the first line in the German translation of The Odd Couple "In Central Park they built a monument in memory of someone who shuffled himself to death." This was because a german TV broadcast of the odd couple was broadcast the day before on the same network.
And, of course, a cause-and-effect relationship can have multiple causes and multiple effects, as when skipping classes and not studying (the causes) result in you not understanding the material and failing the class (the effects).
Sometimes, a cause-and-effect relationship resembles a domino effect or chain reaction, in which one original cause leads to an effect that then becomes a cause of another effect, which becomes the next cause, creating a chain of events.
For example, a man offends his neighbor by insulting him (the cause). His neighbor becomes angry (the effect and the next cause) and he in turn tells his friends (the next effect and cause). His friends also become angry (another effect and cause) and tell their friends (another effect and cause). All the friends gather to confront the original man (the final effect). By insulting his neighbor, the original man caused a series of actions connected together (a chain) that resulted in him being confronted by an angry mob.
Step 3: Look for effects that are also causes. Effects can form a chain in which one effect goes on to cause a second effect, which may then cause a third effect and so on. Study this example:
Notice how each supporting sentence is a cause that explains the effect mentioned in the topic sentence. In the chart below are the main ideas of the above paragraph, to help you understand the relationships better:
Help students see the need to evaluate the evidence for cause and effect relationships by observing this Works Progress Administration (WPA) poster. After giving students time to observe the poster, ask:
Discussing these questions will likely lead students to recognize that the poster promotes the idea that milk causes good teeth, vitality, endurance and strong bones. Ask students what they might need to assess the validity of these cause and effect relationships. Depending on when you do this during the school year, students will likely recognize that evidence from experimentation or research is required to assess the validity of these relationships.
A similar process of analysis can be employed by observing other WPA posters promoting cause and effect relationships. One interesting option could be this poster that connects poor posture and tuberculosis. Analyzing primary sources such as these WPA posters provides students the opportunity to strengthen their critical analysis of cause and effect relationships while furthering their content knowledge and media literacy.
New research1 has found that when children are asked to come up with explanations (even just to themselves) while learning, they are able to connect new ideas with prior cause-and-effect knowledge better than those who are not encouraged to explore and explain. By forming their own generalizations, children can more efficiently understand new information.
Both studies found that the children (regardless of age) who were asked to explain the toy outperformed the other children in understanding the cause and effect operations of the toy. For example, if a part was unknowingly removed from the toy by the researcher, the children in the explain condition were able to figure out and understand why this was happening more so than children in the other groups.
I believe that the information in this article is very valid. I think when children are required to explain something in their own words they learn more from this self-explanation. I have used read-alouds and repeated reading activities to teach reading. These types of activities are good for memorization and vocabulary recognition but I often wonder if after the repeated reading or read-alouds are completed if they will apply what they read or be able to read the vocabulary in a different activity. I think self-explanation and searching for cause-effect connections force children to form concepts they will remember.
Cause and effect papers use analysis to examine the reasons for and the outcomes of situations. They are an attempt to discover either the origins of something, such as an event or a decision, the effects or results that can be properly attributed to it, or both.
Discovering causesBefore you begin writing or even researching, make a list of all the causes of this event you already know about. Ask questions like these: Why did this happen? What preconditions existed? Were the results foreseen? Could they have been foreseen? Then do some preliminary research, using what you already know to guide the direction of your reading. Change or add to your original list of causes to reflect new information gathered from your research. Done in depth, this kind of analysis is likely to uncover an almost unlimited chain of linked causes, far more than you can effectively address in one paper. Identify one to three of them as more important (or interesting, or overlooked) than the others. Then, acknowledging that multiple causes exist, limit your discussion to those most important (or interesting, or overlooked).
As you brainstorm possible causes, do not fall into the trap of thinking that, simply because one event followed another, that there was necessarily a causal relationship. (The mere fact that four youths were seen running away from the scene of an assault does not itself logically implicate them in the assault; they could have been running for help, chasing down the alleged criminal, or simply jogging by.)
Also, do not confuse a necessary precondition for a cause: A large number of costumed students milling about in downtown Chico on Halloween night may be a necessary precondition for a riot, but it is not, in itself, the cause of a riot.
Discovering effectsIf you choose to write about effects, first brainstorm: Make a list of all the effects you know about, and use this list to direct your research to learn more. Have the effects had great impact on history, culture, or your own life? Or have they had a small impact with few results? Again, be sure you can demonstrate the causal relationship.
Just as there are usually several causes for anything, there are a multitude of effects that proceed from any one cause. Don't try to address a long chain of effects in one paper. Acknowledge that many effects of various kinds exist, and then limit your discussion to the most important ones. 2ff7e9595c
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