Inferences vs Explanations... one point of view!

Kia ora
I hope you have all had a lovely short week and about to start the weekend, ready for the last week of the term! First, a correction from Anne... I wrote about 'phylus' as part of classification -and it should have been 'phylum' -it's good that I have science experts keeping an eye on me!
This week I've been let loose in classrooms and doing the good ol' soda water and raisins experiment. Feel free to email me if you'd like a copy (a comment here won't help as I might not know your email address!).

https://www.giftofcuriosity.com/states-matter-dancing-raisins-experiment/

As we were talking about the experiment afterwards, the teachers and I were discussing whether what the students were saying were explanations or not. At first glance they were: I'm noticing the raisins and there are lots of bubbles all over them and all the bubbles make the raisins go up and down... If we think about this from the science capabilities (head over to TKI to check them out!), then explanations come under the Using Evidence capability quite nicely... children use evidence to build an explanation, it's not just I notice this, I'm thinking this is why...
And this got me thinking... is the above example more of an inference? I know it is sort of an explanation but if I'm thinking about the science capabilities, the student has gathered data by noticing the raisins, the bubbles ,and the movement, and then interpreted the data by inferring that the bubbles are making the raisins float. I wonder if we teachers are often happy with this inference come explanation without realising that, for an actual explanation, we might need to go deeper.
I might need to scaffold with the students and use my wonderful questioning skills to help develop these explanations: How do we know it's the bubbles? Could it be because of the type of fizzy liquid? Could it be the temperature of the raisins or the liquid? Could it be the raisins? Or their sugar level? Would other objects go up and down? Of course, I'm not going to bombard the student with all of these questions, but I might get the whole class investigating different ideas.
At the end, we might have this as an explanation: I believe that because of the wrinkles on the raisins, they get more bubbles to form from the fizzy liquid and this causes the raisins to float up (yes it might be buoyancy but that's okay for now!). I checked different objects and smoother ones didn't float up and down as well as the raisins did even though they were the same weight. I also tried different liquids with raisins and they needed to have fizz in them so that the bubbles could form around the raisins. For me, I'm thinking that this is more of an explanation as it's the result of further investigation, gathering more data and information to build that thinking... I can prove this is happening because I tried out this and that... Now I wrote "at the end" but this may not be the case. With our older students, we might like to critique evidence, challenge each other's findings... how many different textured objects did you try? What liquids did you try that might have gas? Only fizzies, or vinegar and baking soda too? How many times did you try each experiment?

https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/dancing-corn-thanksgiving-science-activity/dancing-corn-thanksgiving-science-fall-activity-for-kids/

Inferences or interpreting data are still really important. We can use student thinking to delve deeper, investigate further and to prove that what they are thinking might actually be the explanation. They might even use some prior knowledge too. It's what we do with all this that is important -are we happy to stop with an inference and call it an explanation, or do we want the students to pursue a little more?

Keep sciencing on!
Paul