Year 4 Critical thinking: Summer 1 worksheet

“Which Evidence Is Strongest?” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 4 critical thinking unit “Critical thinking: Summer 1”, for children aged 8 to 9, and takes about 22 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 25 to 30 of the year, 6 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Which Evidence Is Strongest?

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 4 · Critical thinking · about 22 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can rank evidence from weakest to strongest by asking who collected it and how many cases were checked.

A Look back3 min

1.
Ice creams sell more on hot days, and sunburn cases go up too. Does ice cream cause sunburn? Circle the best answer.
Yes, ice cream causes sunburnNo, hot weather may cause both
2.
Most of the class likes football, so football must be the best game. Is that a good reason? Circle the best answer.
Yes, most people like itNo, popular is not the same as best
3.
Sam says lunch breaks should be longer. Priya replies: “So you want children to do no work at all!” Is Priya's reply fair? Circle the best answer.
Yes, a fair replyNo, she twisted what Sam said

B Watch me, then you4 min

In this made-up example, a school asks: does cycling to school help children concentrate? Three pieces of evidence arrive. Which is strongest?

Watch me

One source is a story about one child.

The report looks at 40 children.

The study looks at 90 children and checks them carefully.

The study checked the most cases, so it is the strongest.

Now you

1.
A newspaper report looked at 25 cases. A study looked at 90 cases. Which is stronger evidence? Write why.

C Your turn8 min

Anecdotal evidence is one person's own story. Secondary evidence repeats what someone else found. Primary evidence is careful results collected by the person who ran a study. Circle the kind, or sort the cards.

1.
Ben's gran says her tea helped her cold. She tried it once. What kind of evidence is it? Circle the best answer.
anecdotal evidencesecondary evidenceprimary evidence
2.
A website writes about a study done by a university team. The writer did not run the study. What kind of evidence is it? Circle the best answer.
anecdotal evidencesecondary evidenceprimary evidence
3.
A scientist ran her own test on 90 children and wrote down every result. What kind of evidence is it? Circle the best answer.
anecdotal evidencesecondary evidenceprimary evidence
4.
Write each card in the column where it belongs.
Researcher's own data from 200 trialsFriend says her trainers felt betterNews site repeats a university report
Anecdotal Secondary Primary

Say it out loud: What did you check first: who collected it, or how many cases were looked at?

D Spot the mistake3 min

Priya says: “My gran walks to the shop each day, so every gran must be fit.”

1.
What is wrong with Priya's jump? Write one reason.

E Think deeper4 min

1.
In a made-up test, 5 children did the same test three times. A second made-up test used 90 children, once each. Which result is more reliable? Explain.

How did it feel?

Which kind of evidence would you check first next time someone tells you a fact? Why?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Which Evidence Is Strongest? · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. No, hot weather may cause both

2. No, popular is not the same as best

3. No, she twisted what Sam said

B

1. Look for: Picks the study and says it checked more cases (90, not 25). If your child picks the report, ask: which one checked more cases, and why does that make it stronger?

C

1. anecdotal evidence If your child chose secondary, ask: is gran repeating what someone else found? She is telling her own story from trying it once, which is anecdotal.

2. secondary evidence If your child chose primary, ask: who ran the study? The writer only reported someone else's findings, which is secondary.

3. primary evidence If your child chose anecdotal, ask: is this one person's story, or results from many children that the scientist collected herself?

4. Primary: Researcher's own data from 200 trials · Anecdotal: Friend says her trainers felt better · Secondary: News site repeats a university report If your child puts the news site under Primary, ask: did the news site collect the results, or repeat someone else's work?

D

1. Look for: Says that only one person or one gran was checked, so it cannot prove every gran is fit. If your child writes that Priya is right, ask: how many grans did she check, and does one gran show what all grans are like?

E

1. Look for: Names the number of cases (5 or 90) and explains that more cases make a result less likely to be a fluke.

Words to use

Say“Who found this out, and how many cases did they check?”

Instead of“Tell them they are wrong without asking how they know.”

After the sheet

Ask someone at home for a claim they heard this week, such as a weather tip. Ask who found it out and how many times they checked.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

5 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Would the Claim Fall Apart?(with a plan)
Review: Tools for Tricky Arguments(with a plan)
Putting the pieces together(with a plan)
Building a Full Argument(with a plan)
Building one argument, many topics(with a plan)

Every Year 4 critical thinking worksheet

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