Conflicting viewpoints: one line per student

Lesson 7 · Science · about 9 minutes · fixes the 5 questions your student missed on the four-student passage of the 9/13 PreACT

Before answering anything, write one line per student: "Student N: X causes Y because Z." Then mark where they agree and where they differ. The questions are built on exactly those two lists.

ACT describes this passage type as one that "presents two or more explanations for the same scientific phenomena that, because they are based on differing premises or incomplete data, are inconsistent with one another" (ACT, Description of the Science Test). Its own advice: "It may be helpful for you to take notes summarizing each viewpoint" (Preparing for the ACT Test). On the PreACT, your student missed questions that notes like these would have answered.

The method

  1. Define the key term. The introduction usually defines one. Write it down and split it into its parts.
  2. One line per student, right after reading each one: "Student N: X causes Y because Z." Circle the cause.
  3. Agree / differ. Write one line of common ground (what every student accepts, even in passing) and one line of disagreement (usually the main cause, or when or how it happens).
  4. "Which student would predict…?" Ask what the new evidence touches. Pick the student whose cause it changes.
  5. Graph + student. Read the graph first and write the answer in the margin. Only then compare it with the student's claim.

A practice passage (original, with hypothetical data)

Why does bread dough rise?

Introduction. Leavening is the process in which gas is produced in or added to a dough and then held in place by a stretchy protein network called gluten, so the dough expands. Three students explain what mainly makes bread dough rise.

Student 1. Yeast is the main cause. Living yeast cells ferment sugars in the flour and release carbon dioxide gas. The gluten traps this gas, so the dough swells while it rests before baking. Dough made without living yeast will not rise before it is baked.

Student 2. Oven heat is the main cause. Yeast does release some carbon dioxide while the dough rests, but only enough for a modest rise. In the hot oven, water in the dough turns to steam and the gas already in the bubbles expands. The gluten holds this gas in, so most of the rise happens in the oven.

Student 3. Kneading is the main cause. Yeast releases carbon dioxide, but the gas cannot start new bubbles on its own; it can only move into tiny air pockets that were folded in when the dough was mixed and kneaded. Kneading also builds the gluten that holds the gas. Dough mixed without folding in air stays dense, even with live yeast.

0 30 60 90 time resting before baking (min) 100 150 200 volume (mL) P: live yeast R: live yeast, cold room Q: yeast killed
Figure 1 (hypothetical data). Three doughs with the same flour and water; P and Q rested at room temperature, R in a cold room.

The notes your student should write, worked

Steps 1–3 on the practice passage

Leavening = (1) a source of gas + (2) gluten that holds it.

S1: yeast → rise, because it makes CO₂ that gluten traps, before baking.
S2: oven heat → rise, because steam forms and gas expands, during baking.
S3: kneading → rise, because it folds in the air pockets the gas fills.

Agree: gas held by gluten makes dough expand. Yeast makes some CO₂ (S1 says so; S2 says "some"; S3 says so too).
Differ: the main cause, and when most of the rise happens.

Step 4, sample: "A baker kneads twice as long, folding in far more air. Which student most directly predicts a lighter loaf?" The new evidence touches kneading, and kneading is Student 3's cause, so Student 3.

What to watch for with your student. Don't let him start the questions until the three one-liners are on paper. On the real test he fell for three things: a choice that reused a word from the introduction in the wrong role, "only Students 1 and 2" when a student agreed by implication ("yeast does release some…" still counts), and reading the wrong line off the graph. When he answers "which students agree", make him check every student against his agree line, one by one.

Your turn

Use the practice passage and Figure 1 above. Have your student write his three one-liners first.