Hi! I am Studyfin, your science tutor. Today we will explore biodiversity and learn how to ask great research questions!
Biodiversity is the variety of life in an area. It includes all the different plants, animals, and tiny microbes that live together.
To study biodiversity, we start with a big research question. Sometimes, that big question is too broad to answer easily.
We ask smaller, secondary questions to help us. If the answers to these small questions show our big question is off track, we refine it to make it better.
✏️ Worked example
Imagine you want to research this big question: 'How do animals live in the school garden?' Show how to use secondary questions to refine this into a better research question.
Identify the starting big question: 'How do animals live in the school garden?' This is very broad.
Ask secondary questions to gather specific facts. For example: 'What animals are actually in our garden?' and 'What resources do they use?'
Find the answers to your secondary questions. You discover that only insects and earthworms live there, and they mostly use the compost pile.
Use these answers to refine your big question. Since you found only insects in the compost, change your question to be more specific.
State your new, refined major research question: 'How do soil insects use the compost pile in our school garden?'
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