How To Write A Science Essay

Understand Bloom's Taxonomy. In brief, Bloom's taxonomy provides a hierarchical way of organizing cognitive processes. There are six major categories, each which builds upon the previous. These groups are:

1. Knowledge - refers to the ability to define, recall, identify, recognize, knowledge of methodology, principles, generalizations, trend, facts, terminology, theories and structures;
2. Comprehension - refers to the ability to translate, rephrase or restate, interpret or extrapolate;
3. Application - refers to the ability to apply, generalize, choose, organize, develop, use , classify, restructure;
4. Analysis - refers to the ability to analyze relationships, elements and organization, principles such as being able to distinguish, identify, classify discriminate, categorize, deduce, analyze compare;
5. Synthesis - refers to the ability to produce a unique communication (i.e., write, tell, transmit) production of a plan or set of operations, derive a set of abstract relationships;
6. Evaluation - refers to the ability to judge in terms of internal and external evidence (i.e., judge, argue, validate, assess, compare

Example. Let's assume that you will have a test about the story of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." Do you remember the story line? - Goldilocks visits the home of the papa, mamma and baby bear where she sleeps in their bed, eats their food and breaks their chairs. Answer the following questions:

Knowledge: What are some of the things that Goldilocks did in the bear's house?

Comprehension. Why did Goldilocks like the little bear's chair best?

Application: If Goldilocks had come into your house, what are some of the things she might have used?

Analysis: What parts of the story could not have actually happened?

Synthesis: How might the story have been different if Goldilocks had visited the three fish?

Evaluation: Do you think Goldilocks was good or bad? Why do you think so?

Notice that the questions get progressively more "difficult". They cannot be answered with single word answers at the upper levels. Also note that simple memorization will not suffice to answer the "higher level" questions. Rather, careful thought is required to formulate a decent response.

In general, introductory biology students do a terrific job answering knowledge and some comprehension type questions but don't do as well with higher level questions. As a rule of thumb, we like to include at least 50% or more knowledge questions with a handful of others. Be prepared. Cramming and memory work are only good for "knowledge" questions.

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