What is Science?
What is science? SCIENCE IS FUN! It is finding out about what you do not know. Science is discovery. The great thing about science is that you don't have to have the answers to do science or be a scientist; you just have to ask questions and then carefully look for the answers. That is something you do every day!
So what happens if you find a wrong answer? Well, that is what scientists have done for hundreds of years and are still doing today! For instance, scientists once thought the world was flat, and the earth was the center of the universe, and so on. Answers that scientists once thought were correct are no longer even considered. By using more powerful tools, scientists are always learning more about our world and how it works. Doing science means having new ideas of how things work based on what we already know. Sometimes, the wrong answers are more important than the right ones.
In order to make sure that scientists get answers that make sense for the information and tools they have, and so that other scientists can repeat their experiments, they conduct experiment very carefully by using what is called the Scientific Method. It is really quite simple and goes like this:
Ask Questions. Questions about what? Your questions will come from what you already know from books, teachers, parents, and your own experiences. Start by studying what you already know. Then ask your questions. What other things do you want to know about whatever you are studying? Many times as you study what you already know, your questions will change. That's OK. Make a list of all your questions and then select just one at a time to investigate. Example: What will happen to a plant if it is left in the dark?
Write down a guess of what you think the answer to your question will be. This is called a hypothesis. Based on everything you know about your question, guess what the answer is going to be. Example: A plant left in the dark will die; or A plant left in the dark will turn yellow; or A plant left in the dark will turn brown and die; or A plant left in the dark will stay green.
Make an experiment to find the answer to your question. Figure out ways to find the answer to your question. Remember, there will be more than one way to do an experiment. Usually, the simpler your experiment is the more likely it will work.
Make a list of all the stuff you will need to do your experiment. Sometimes you will have to do the experiment a different way because you don't haveall the things you need.
- Plants (how many?)
- A dark place
- Water
- Things to measure the plant
- Paper for drawing pictures of the plant
Gather up all the stuff you will need to do your experiment.
Write out a list of everything that has to be done and what comes first, second, etc.
- Make a dark place. How? Will you put the plant in a closet or cover it with a box or what?
- Water the plants (How often?)
- Put one plant in the dark place and leave one plant in the light.
- Make a schedule of what you are going to look at or measure (how often, for how long, who does the measuring?)
- When will you know the experiment is done?
See what happens. This is called Observation. Carefully watch what happens. Write down everything you see. Often, the best way to record what happens is to draw pictures (color them if that will help). Measure your plants.
Summarize your information. Make a summary of everything that you did and all the information you collected. Make graphs and charts. Use the computer to make pictures, add clip art, or make graphs.
Decide what your information means. What is the answer to your question? Write up everything you did and the summary of your information and explain it to someone else.
Ask more questions (start all over again!). It was so much fun the first time, and now you get to do it again with another question.