Later two or more characteristics may be employed to introduce further specificity. Young students may be limited to single characteristic groupings, but older students frequently find two characteristic groupings useful. While observing, communicating, comparing, ordering, and categorizing are processes common to most children even as they enter school, relating is a process frequently developed in the later primary years. Interactions between and among variables, cause and effect occurrences, and dependencies are the substance of relationships. Inferring explains and predicts.
Children enjoy predicting.
While most students do not become proficient using inference until middle school age, many students may use models and evidence combined with reasoning to understand that which they cannot test or view directly. Additionally, they use prediction in developing hypotheses which they may be able to test subsequently. Applying is the final scientific thinking process . New knowledge is created through applying a new treatment to a problem. Application creates new knowledge or understandings.