PLSHS Chemistry Students Learn That "Failed" Results Are Part of the Process, 8/27/2026

Not every experiment goes according to plan — and in Mr. Kahm's Chemistry class at Papillion La Vista South High School, that's exactly the point. As students tested three chemical reactions this week, they were introduced to the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (C-E-R) model, a scientific problem-solving framework used throughout their coursework to answer questions and support conclusions with evidence.

Working through detailed worksheets, students practiced essential lab procedures, including the importance of thoroughly understanding directions before beginning each step of an experiment. Along the way, some students encountered unexpected outcomes rather than the reactions they anticipated. Rather than treating this as a setback, Mr. Kahm built the possibility of unexpected results directly into the lesson. "Our results are our results," he said, encouraging students to view their actual findings as valid data rather than a failure to replicate a "correct" answer.

The lab gave students insight into how variables — such as the strength of a solution or the order of steps in a procedure — can influence experimental outcomes, a core concept in scientific literacy. In the class periods that followed, Mr. Kahm revisited the C-E-R model with students, explaining its purpose in depth. "It is a problem solving technique used to help students answer questions and provide evidence for their answers as well as an explanation as to how that evidence supports their claim," he said. While a full scientific study would repeat an experiment multiple times to identify trends, students instead used the model to analyze their single set of observations and reason through the data together as a class.

By embracing imperfect results as a learning opportunity, Papillion La Vista South High School's science program is teaching students that the scientific method is about the process of inquiry and reasoning — not just arriving at an expected answer, a lesson that will serve them well in any future scientific pursuit.