SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY
(How Do Scientists Find Out Things?)
Scientific Inquiry is the way tomake sure you explore your question thoroughly. The cool thing about science is that when you ask a question, thatquestion can take you to really interesting places. You could discover somethingnew!
1. ASK A QUESTION
What is my topic?
Phrase your topic as a question(e.g.: Why is the sky blue? How do baseball pitchers throw a curve?).
2. MAKE A PREDICTION
Form a hypothesis and predict. Whatdo I think will happen? Why?
3. GATHER MATERIALS
What materials will I need to answermy question?
Make a list of everything you willuse.
4. PLAN A PROCEDURE
What steps do I take to answer myquestion?
Write this out (like a recipe for yourexperiment).
5. CHOOSE YOURVARIABLES
What is going to change in yourexperiment (manipulated variable)?
What is going to remain the same(controlled variables)?
What do you need to keep the same tomake your experiment fair?
6. GATHER DATA ANDRECORD RESULTS
What happened?
Write down your data and your results.This could include a data table, photos, or a bar graph to show what happened.
7. CONCLUSIONS/REFLECTION
What did you learn?
When we follow the scientificprocess, we’re asked to tell what happened (answer our hypothesis) usinginformation from our data collection and results section.