Let's Take A Closer Look at the Box Diagram

I am going to approach this idea several times, from different directions. Please bear with me as I go through the introduction.

My experience is that it takes students, and teachers, several attempts to "get" this idea, so be prepared for a spiral curriculum experience. It might appear to be a little repetitious, but stick with it. Your students will thank you.

The first thing to note is that the student "progresses" through five stages. It might be more appropriate to say that the student considers five kinds of actions.

One of the purposes of the "box" is to arrange aspects of these actions so that they are adjacent. In history, and in rhetoric, they would not appear to be so obviously related.

 Now pay attention to the coloured bars in the diagram. Boxes 2 and 5 are tied together by a magenta bar labelled "theory - thinking." Boxes 2 and 5 are theoretical in their intention: they deal with scientists' representations of nature. As such, the first row is theoretical.
Box 2 is concerned with concepts and theories. This is the place where the student works to make representations of her thoughts about her focus question. Box 5 is the place where the student makes representations of theoretical implications of her findings.

The yellow bar that connects boxes 3 and 4 indicate the methodological emphasis of those phases in the investigation. These boxes are about doing things. They are concerned with method, its design, its instrumentality, its effectiveness, its limits.

Now note the cyan-coloured vertical connecting boxes 2 and 3. These boxes are concerned with model-building. In box 2, the student-scientist considers possible theoretical models that might be brought to bear upon the focus question. In box 3, the student-scientist considers how to hive off a little bit of nature, so as to construct a methodological model that could test the student-scientist's theoretical model of the situation.

The magenta analysis bar connects boxes 4 and 5. In box 4, the student-scientist makes representations of the records. Note that the term records indicates a much broader collection of data than "observations." This would include video, audio, and transducer records of nearly infinite variety. Box 4 also includes all attempts to methodically transform the records. This could be as simple as constructing an ordered table of records, or as complex as computationally modifying a photograph of a supernova. In any case, the student-scientist understands that she is methodically making records of data relevant to the focus question, and transforming  that data into relevant structures. This is methodical analysis.

In box 5, the student-scientist attempts to analyze the theoretical implications of all that has preceded.

OK. Is this just more government-funded BS from OISE? Or does this actually apply to real situations?

First disclaimer: I have not received a dime of government money.
Second disclaimer: OISE will not allow me into their elevators.
Third disclaimer. This isn't BS.

In seven days, I will be back with two lines of evidence.

First line: many articles published in scientific journals apparently reflect this structure.
Second line: many students have provided me with convincing examples of this kind of work.