It Helps to Learn the Steps To The Scientific Method When Helping Your Child AT Science Fair Time
There is a lot of talk about how you need to use the steps to the scientific method when doing and experiment for a science fair.
Most parents remember “something” about it from their school days, but here is a refresher course.
For a more detailed look at this and science vocabulary and how to do a project with your child look for the Non-Scientists Guide to Science Fairs for Parents. It s a FREE gift .
Here is brief look at the Steps to the Scientific Method:
Observe- What do you notice about what you see each day? Students might be asked to observe thing about a unit they are studying. This is the core that professional scientist use to create their proposals for funding, they observe. For them it could be something you observed while working on a different experiment.
Question- Observations lead to questions. A common question is I wonder if I do this, will it affect that? Of How does this one thing react in different scenarios. This is where scientists start asking about cures to diseases.
Hypotheses- Once you question, then you start predicting possible answers, what we call the “educated guess.” Students will predict what they think will happen if they were to do something or mix things together. Predictions are also based on observations they made earlier. Scientists get very specific at this point. They are not predicating the cure to the common cold, but what once specific ingredient may or may not do.
Experimentation- This is where you carry out the actual investigation. As students and scientists, this is where you have to make sure you have what they call a control, a base line read and you watch the variables. You have to be able to show a direct connection between your prediction and the outcome. If there are too many things that change, you can’t make that connections. Keeping track of the data is an important part of this.
Results- From the data you collect in your experiment you start to make conclusions. Were you able to prove your hypothesis or predictions true? Or did you prove it would not work? Or was it inconclusive?
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If you have some ideas on how you learned these, please share them below. Yes, I monitor comments and only those related to this blog topic will be accepted.
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