Reasoning Analytically means to make educated judgments and come to conclusions based on evidence and logic. It also means to take a big idea and to break it down into smaller parts that can be deeply researched and understood. To Reason Analytically, you must not let your own bias and opinions get in the way of problem-solving. When you Reason Analytically, it is important to have evidence from reliable sources to back up what you are saying. If you don’t have evidence, you should use your better judgment to support your claim. Sometimes, you won’t have any data/not enough data to confirm what you are stating. In those cases, you have to listen to your head to make a decision, and then observe whether or not you were correct. Reasoning Analytically involves making educated decisions, having evidence to back you up, and being able to face challenges with a rationale and an objective in mind. When you successfully Reason Analytically, you should have taken your information from multiple different sources before you come to a conclusion, because that way you will have been looking at something from all angles and perspectives. If you Reason Analytically on something where nothing is known, then you need to observe and look for patterns to conclude, or if you figure out an idea for how something works then you need to find a way to express that idea. When you Reason Analytically, it is important to be aware of the difference between your own opinions and belies and real facts.

My Understanding

​One way that I use Reasoning Analytically at school is in Science class. When answering Analysis Questions (or AQs) we have to examine our data in order to answer the question. In our last lab, we had to write a procedure and a list of materials, as well as a data table, for a lab that would determine whether adding more mass to a cart made it push a block further down a track. When answering questions about my experiment, I needed to take into account my prediction that I had made before the experiment, and my data to come up with a fitting answer to the question. This is an example of Reasoning Analytically because I am taking evidence from different sources, analyzing it and finding the similarities, and coming to a conclusion based on all my data. For example, my prediction was “I believe that changing the mass of the cart will make the block move further when the cart has more mass because of inertia and friction.” I used the following evidence to support my thinking:

This data helps to support my prediction because it shows that each time I added more mass, the block moved more centimeters down the track. I was able to answer the Analysis Questions looking at my prediction and my data, then coming to a conclusion based on both of those things, as well as the knowledge I already had about mass. One thing I learned in this project was how to construct an experiment and test a hypothesis. This can be beneficial when I don’t have evidence, and I need to find a way to test my thinking. I also was able to learn from writing my procedure that when reading someone’s work, I want to know how they came to those conclusions.

A counterexample of Reasoning Analytically would be making uneducated and unsupported claims and decisions. If you say things with no evidence or data to prove what you’re saying is true, then that wouldn’t be Reasoning Analytically. For example, in that lab if I had answered the questions without looking at my data, or only looking at one piece of my data, then I wouldn’t have gotten the whole picture and therefore couldn’t have come to a strong final answer.

Another counter-example of this skill is circular reporting. When you make claims that don’t have any data to back them up, your audience could be believing things that are not true, and you could be spreading fake or inaccurate information. This is a problem because spreading information that isn’t true can lead to circular reporting, which can be dangerous. Circular reporting is the spreading of inaccurate information which appears to come from multiple different sources but only actually comes from one source. This is a real life counter example of this skill, and something that I learned about early on this year in ELA. When you make judgements based only on what you think, that is also a counter-example of this skill. Additionally, when doing a project, if you are not looking at and examining all your reasons and evidence from different sources, then that would not be Reasoning Analytically. You could also not be taking enough time to analyze all of your evidence, which could lead to only see a part of something. This is not a sustainable way of thinking because when stating information, you want to make sure you are looking at the whole picture and not just one part of it.

I often use a counter-example of this skill in conversation. When talking to a friend or family member, I may be caught up in the conversation and not realize that I said something uneducated and possibly even not true. It can definitely be hard sometimes to make sure everything you are saying has something (or someone) to back them up, but it is important. When you say things that are going with your gut and not really thinking about whether what you're saying is opinion or fact, that is not really an example of this Sustainability Skill. I think it's more difficult to Reason Analytically when speaking to friends or family because they are people you know well, and so you aren’t really filtering what you say when you’re with them. A way I can overcome this is by making sure I think about what I say before I say it.

My Growth

Reasoning Analytically has always been the skill that I had a hard time understanding. I don’t really know why, but it’s just always been that way for me. I think that the main part of the skill I’ve grown in during my time at SEEQS is understanding what it means to use it, what it looks like in action and what it looks like when the skill is not being used. Although this may seem like a small achievement, it was a challenge that took me three years to meet. And even as I’m writing this, I am still learning and growing. The main thing that’s helped me to understand this Sustainability Skill is taking things one step at a time, each year learning something new and appreciating something about the skill that I didn’t notice before. In sixth grade, I thought Reasoning Analytically meant doing something based on your judgement, opinions, and what you think of something (not what someone else thinks, not giving in to peer pressure). I didn’t really know what this skill meant, but I think that my understanding of the skill has grown a lot since then.

A project in sixth grade that helped me grow in this skill was using the Claim, Evidence, Warrant method in Ms. Ingerson’s ELA Class. This helped me to understand Reasoning Analytically because I had to make a claim about the story we were reading, identify textual evidence from the book, then make a warrant explaining how my evidence connected to my claim, which made my claim stronger and more believable. My evidence was specific passages I had taken from the sections of the book that I thought related to my claim. If I were to do this project again, I might add more to my warrant explaining how it connected to my theme, because that would have made it more convincing.

This would be an important step because in order to make your claim believable, you need to be able to explain how the evidence relates to the claim and proves it is true.

I believe I will continue to improve in the skill by doing research online or asking someone I trust before I believe something that someone has said to me. I will make sure that when I read something or someone says something to me, it may just be their opinion or something untrue that was told to them by someone else. This will be very beneficial to me later on in life, because I will be able to know when something is true and when something is not, and only pass on the information that is accurate.

My Project

A project that helped me grow in the Sustainability Skill of Reasoning Analytically was the Financial Adulting Project in Ms. Janelle’s 8th Grade Algebra class. The purpose of this assignment was to learn about money and what it would be like to be an adult having to juggle paying for many different things. It was also to think about our essential question: “How can I understand and impact the world around me using math?” I think that this project helped me to understand our essential question because I was able to think more deeply about all the different things you need to pay for and how to know what is something worth buying based on its price and quality. We had to think of all the things we would need over the course of a year.

As shown on these class slides, our first step on Day 1 was to get assigned a life scenario. We were given a job, salary, spouse (or not) any pets, children, and any special needs. So the number of people and animals in our house and things that would add any financial burdens. My job was an oil rig tool pusher, and I made $88,131. My spouse was a boy in my class named Cole Rodriguez, and he was a doctor at a private practice who made $284,000. We also had one school aged kid and one dog. After this, we used our spreadsheet to think of things that we would need to pay for, and sorted them into two columns, fixed expenses and additional expenses. We were also able to ask our parents or anyone in our household who could help us with thinking of things that we would need to pay for like state and federal taxes, housing expenses, donations, car payments, bill payments, etc. I had to first think of items that were necessities, (food, water, etc.) and things that weren’t as important (subscriptions, cars, etc.) I determined which were the most necessary by thinking of what I couldn't’ live without.

On Day 2, we started by using a website to calculate our taxes based on our income and housing situations. We also spent time looking for houses on sites like Zillow and Trulia to find a place for our family to live, which involved deciding whether we were going to rent or buy a house. When looking for a house we needed to consider pricing, location, how large the house was, and how big it was.

On Days 4-5, we worked on our write-up document which summarized everything we’d done in this project and also had some calculations for equations. On these days, we also worked on using our equation for finding amounts and interest, and figuring out our loans and investments. Here is a section from my write-up explaining some decisions I made:

“By far the most expensive and most important investment I’ve made so far is my house. Since we have a relatively large salary, I thought buying a house would be the best option. On the sites that I looked at, there were dirty apartments for really cheap and big fancy houses for a lot of money. It was very hard to find an in between. I was able to find an apartment for $2,983 a month. I wanted to have saved money, and since we are only a family of three I thought it wasn’t super necessary to have a huge house. I don’t think ours is the nicest, but it will do the trick. I liked it because of its wood floors and big windows for natural light. Also, since it's in the city, we aren’t going to have to go very far to get to work, and maybe we could even walk instead of drive. Speaking of, another thing I chose to put some money into is a car. I found a used car on cars.com for $12,000, which is a little cheap, but it had less than 50,000 miles so I thought it was ok for that reason. I think having a car is necessary for things like trips around the island and stuff like that. Although I hope we can buy bikes and also do some walking to be more sustainable. Something else I decided to get was pet insurance. I know trips to the vet can be pricey, and I also thought that if my dog got hurt or sick having insurance would be good. Also, it wasn’t super expensive. I also paid for a Netflix subscription, as well as $100 a month for entertainment. I’m not sure that’s enough, but I also have to budget myself. I put money into many other things, as you can see on my spreadsheet below. I hope that since I have some leftover money, I can start a college fund for my son, a retirement account for myself and my husband, and maybe some other things.”

This shows that I was Reasoning Analytically because I had to examine different amounts and things I could invest in, and find the one that would best serve my purpose. I also had a budget and a certain income I was getting, so I had to pay for things that were good quality and would be useful while also making sure I didn’t spend too much money. It really was a balancing act. When trying to figure out reasonable amounts for different expenses, I had to look on a bunch of different websites and check with different people to make sure they all agreed. I think this is a good example because it shows me doing all three steps: gathering evidence, analyzing evidence, and then coming to a decision/final amount. One specific example was when I was trying to figure how much money I would need to set aside to pay for food every year. The evidence I reviewed was what my peers had done, trustworthy articles online, and asking my parents, who have to pay for these kinds of things, what they thought. I Reasoned Analytically when doing this by coming to conclusions based on evidence and rationales from multiple different sources, which helped me come to a reasonable final amount.

I chose to use this project to represent Reasoning Analytically because I think I demonstrated my ability to use the skill well in this project, and it also was an activity that helped me to understand the skill better.

If we were not Reasoning Analytically we probably would have wasted all our money not paying for good quality, good priced things. We also may have paid for things that didn’t end up lasting.

Not only was this project beneficial for me in the future, but it also helped me to use, understand, and grow in the skill of Reasoning Analytically.

Relation To Skill

This exemplar, my Financial Adulting Project, demonstrates that I was Reasoning Analytically because I had to make evidence-based decisions and think logically about how my choices would affect me in the future. I also had to take in many different factors such as my salary and my scenario. The goal of this project was to be able to pay for all the things we needed to pay for while not using up all of our money. I believe that I was able to successfully do this by doing my research and making sure I spent my money wisely. An example of time where I had to spend my money wisely was when I was buying a car. I didn’t know anything about how much a good quality used car would cost, and so I asked my Dad for help. I learned about milage from our conversation, and was therefore able to choose a car based on pricing and how much mileage it had, which was very helpful in terms of making sure the car would last.

Specifically, I used Reasoning Analytically when I was trying to find a house. I knew that buying a house was more of a permanent decision then renting, but may cost us less money in the long-run if we lived there for long enough. When finding a house, I had to think about many different factors such as location and pricing. I also wanted it to be a house that was a nice place to live in terms of how it looked. Finding a house that fit all of my requirements wasn’t easy, but I used Reasoning Analytically by gathering up all my evidence of what I knew about buying houses to find the right one.

A time I don’t think I used Reasoning Analytically was when I copied what one person had said about a specific amount. I didn’t know how much electricity bills cost, and so I asked one of my friends what she had written and ended up being way off. I realize that I could have asked many different people and done research online in order to prove that what my friend was saying was true. This goes back to not believing everything you hear, because sometimes the things you are reading aren’t actually reliable either. I also think I wasn’t using Reasoning Analytically when I went with my opinions about what I thought something would cost. Going with what you think or what someone says not based on evidence is a counter-example of this skill because you aren’t backing up your claim with reasons or evidence.

Completing this project helped me understand Reasoning Analytically better because I needed to think about reasonable prices for each of the things I was paying for. Using my knowledge of how much something usually costs and how much something good quality would cost, I was able to analyze my data and come to a conclusion. Before this project, I had never really had to do this before, and so that’s why having to research and use multiple different sources to come to a final amount helped me grow and understand this skill better.

In the future when I encounter a project where I have to use Reasoning Analytically, I will think about this project. Knowing how to use knowledge from different people and sources was very beneficial to me in terms of coming to my final amounts. In order to be successful in completing this project, I needed to think about the knowledge I already had for certain things and also take into account what I had done research on and what others had told me. I will also know better how to take into account my reasoning, and know how to come to a conclusion based on evidence.

View Other Sustainability Skill Reflections:
Managing Effectively
Communicating Powerfully
Collaborating Productively
Thinking Systemically