Note that our main focus with the Michigan standards is now on the essentials; those code standards with capital letters only.
With the Common Core our focus will be on scientific writing. Students will create argument driven scientific explanations using three components: a claim, evidence, and reasoning (CER). The claim is the answer to the original investigative question. The evidence supports the claim using scientific data. The reasoning links the claim to the evidence using scientific principles. The data can come from an actual lab, reading material, or archived data. Additionally at the high school level students will also need to include a rebuttal. For instance, if they are doing a lab and one group gets different results they can use that data as a counterclaim using evidence to support that counterclaim such as specific human error or equipment error.