The+Scientific+Method

=The Scientific Method=

The **Scientific Method** is a way for scientists to find out about the world around us. Ancient Greeks were interested in the world, too, and they thought a lot about how it worked. They came up with some very interesting ideas about how the world works, but they were wrong about many of them. Why? Because they never TESTED their ideas. With the scientific method, we ask questions, perform tests, and then decide whether our ideas are right or wrong.

Here is a simplified version of the Scientific Method, created for elementary school classes, and adapted to fit with the standard work sample. It is important for students to learn that when they do science, they are not just learning facts, but learning a process for finding out facts, through asking questions and conducting investigations.

The scientific method (very simplified) can be broken down as follows:
 * ====Ask a **question**.====
 * It is an important point that before doing an experiment, we must start with a question that we want to answer, such as "Does paper float on water?" or "will aluminum conduct electricity?". Until students are used to the scientific method, the question may be provided by the teacher. However, encourage students to suggest questions that may lead to interesting investigations.
 * ====Form a **hypothesis** (a.k.a. guess or prediction).====
 * This is an educated guess at the answer to your question. Think of what you know about science, and based on that, decide what you think will happen. For instance:
 * Aluminum is a metal. I know of some other metals that conduct electricity. Therefore, aluminum will conduct electricity.
 * It is important for students to NOT change their hypothesis after conducting their investigation. It is okay to prove your hypothesis wrong; in fact the most interesting scientific discoveries come when something happens that we weren't expecting!
 * For students, don't criticize a hypothesis. A student's hypothesis may be "Aluminum is silvery like steel, and steel conducts electricity, so aluminum will conduct electricity." This doesn't demonstrate a very strong factual knowledge of science, but does demonstrate good logic. A student who is criticized for not knowing much about science will be discouraged from finding out the answer.
 * Even kids as young as first grade like to learn the big science word "hypothesis". Just make sure they know what it means.
 * ====Design and conduct your **test** (a.k.a. "investigation").====
 * **Designing the investigation:** There is an entire sheet for this in the standard work sample. It includes safety, materials, writing a step-by-step procedure, and drawing a diagram of your experimental setup.
 * **Conducting the investigation:** This is where the students actually run the experiment. Be sure that they **collect data** (work sample page 3) as they go.
 * **Presenting Data:** If graphs or tables need to be made. Also on work sample page 3.*
 * ====Find your **answer**.====
 * Analyze the results of your experiment. What do your results tell you?
 * Was your hypothesis right or wrong?
 * Does this raise any new **questions**?

IMPORTANT NOTE:
For simplicity's sake, the scientific method is usually presented as a linear, stepwise progression. In reality, this is rarely the case. For example, scientists often create multiple hypotheses. Also, it is very common that the first versions of the test are flawed, and must be re-designed. Sometimes we find that our hypothesis isn't testable, and we must alter it to make it testable, etc. Also, our test results may give us different answers based on how we interpret them. Thus, one may go through multiple cycles of the scientific method before getting a good answer at the end.