In the Learning by Critiquing! scenario the major student activity is to judge the quality of an experimental set-up. Students read a report written by others about an experiment that they performed. Learning activities center around presenting and defending opinions by making judgments about information, the validity of ideas, or quality of work based on a set of criteria.

In the first part of the scenario, students judge the report based on a set of criteria that the teacher has given them. Based on their critique they try to come to a better experiment design. In the second part of the scenario, they perform the experiment and write a report about their design, findings, and conclusions. In the third part of the scenario, students exchange their reports and evaluate the work of another (group of) student(s). Based on the feedback that they receive they finalize their report.

This scenario is used to make students aware of the processes related to scientific reasoning and reporting and is less focused on teaching a specific topic. Students should have some basic understanding of the topic at hand. If this is not present, the basic information should be presented in the Orientation phase of the scenario.