Scientific Method Inquiry

The scientific method is useful when constructing an experiment because it helps us come up with problems and how to solve them.  The different steps of the scientific method work together to help us construct an experiment that goes along with the problem or question to come up with a conclusion to help us better understand the subject or topic of conversation.  

The scientific method has 6 steps:

1. Ask a question

- In a clip taken from the classic "Back to the Future", we can see the process Doc Brown goes through as he figures out how to get Marty McFly to go back in time.  As he watched a video of his future self, he noticed things he was seeing and asked some important questions.  He rewatched what he wasn't understanding, brainstormed ideas, and came up with an idea.  This was visual of a shortened version of the beginning of the scientific method.  As you can see in this clip from the movie, asking questions is key when starting an experiment because it gives us an idea of the problem we need to solve.     

2. Do the research

- Doing research before coming up with an experiment is very important because it gives us access to background information regarding the topic in question.   

3. Make a hypothesis

- A hypothesis is an educated guess about the answer to our science question.  It helps us make a prediction about our topic so we can test it.  A hypothesis is formatted as an "If... Then..." statement.  "If____ [I test this/I do this], then___ [This] will happen."

4. Test the hypothesis

- Testing our hypothesis allows us to test whether our prediction was accurate.  It is very important to test hypotheses multiple times fairly.  

-We test hypotheses fairly by conducting the experiment multiple times while only changing one factor, or variable, each time. 

5. Analyze and come to a conclusion

- After we conduct multiple rounds of our experiment, we must analyze the data and conclude whether they support our hypothesis or not. 

- There's no shame in constructing an incorrect hypothesis! We test our hypothesis to collect accurate information.  By testing a hypothesis with an experiment, we might find data that we didn't expect at first, and that can be a good thing!

6. Share results

-Publishing our findings after concluding an experiment is a great way to get our research out into the scientific community.  No matter the result, sharing is helpful to other scientists wondering the same thing.

Quiz Results

When I took the quiz, I confused the terms theory and hypothesis.  It is very important to know the difference between these two.  

Theories can be confirmed through tests, hypotheses have not.  

Also, I confused part of the sequence that takes us through the scientific method-- first, we need to recognize a problem.  Second, we draw inferences or make predictions, and third, we test a hypothesis.  

 

Ted Talk

After watching the TedTalk given by Robert Full, my understanding of teaching the scientific method has evolved.  Full explained that science is not as simple as most people would think, and there are steps we need to take in order to learn and discover new things.  In addition, there are so many places science can take a student.  Teaching science effectively is important because it gives students access to a lot of opportunities in the future.