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Home : 2002 : October : 14
The scientific method was an area that was assessed in my last school district because it was a school improvement goal- therefore it was assessed at each grade level for building purposes and statewide alternating
Plan your experiment (materials, procedure) Collect Data (observations, graphs, pictures) Draw a conclusion (did you answer your original question, was your hypothesis correct, could you apply this to a real life situation) One key point for the scientific method when having your kids design experiments is fixed variables and manipulated variables. Kids usually manipulate many variables at the same time. It helps if you do an experiment with the class using the scientific method, and then have them change one aspect of the experiment when they design their own. Another key point is having the kids make a hypothesis in an if then because statement. A final challenge is that kids will not use their data to support their conclusion. Kids have to realize that it is ok if their hypothesis is incorrect, and that they should use that in their conclusion to show that their is a need for further testing. For example, there is a FOSS science unit called variables that has an experiment where kids make a swinger. We took the kids out to the swing set and had them observe a swing moving back and forth. They then made a swinger using 20 cm. of string, 1 penny attached with a paper clip at the end. They released the paper clip at desk level and counted the full cycles (back and forth) that is swung in a fixed amount of time. Then they needed to "change" the number of swings. The overall question they may have developed was "Will decreasing the length of the string increase the number of swings?" A hypothesis would be "If I use 15 cm of string than it will increase the number of swings because the swing has a shorter distance to travel." Some kids added pennies, others increased or decreased the length of the string, others changed the drop height. They collected data by counting the number of swings. They then had to return to their original question and see if their experiment answered it. I have seen online an experiment (don't have website) with oreo cookies. You give kids oreo cookies to eat. After they eat them, ask them how they ate them- taking them apart and licking the cream off each circle, or just biting them as one whole cookie. Model the scientific process with them by designing a question, making a hypothesis, materials and procedure, collecting data, and drawing a conclusion. Then have the kid manipulate one variable (different cookie, different sample population, etc). This would be a fun way. I don't know if it is truly scientific and think it is a bit constructed (not open ended), but it sure would be fun. Hope this helps. I can't wait to hear other ideas for this.
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