Scientists

L. 1: How Do Scientists Investigate Questions

What is science?

Science is a way of looking at the world and thinking about it.

Scientists ask questions about the world.

Scientists do investigations to answer their questions.

What do you see?

• When you use your senses to notice details, you observe.

• When you infer, you offer an explanation of what you observed.

Multiple Choice

The tarantula is about to attack it's prey.

• Observation

• Inference

Multiple Choice

A man is getting hit in the face with a baseball.

• Observation

• Inference.

Getting Answers

Science questions can be answered in many ways.

Two ways to answer science questions are exploring and investigating.

Exploring

• When you explore, you make observations of the world around you.

• You may predict what will happen when you do something.

• When you predict, you use what you know to guess what will happen in the future.

Investigating

• In science, an investigation is a planned way of finding answers to science questions.

• In an investigation, you may use models.

• Models represent real objects, but are easier to study.

Multiple Choice

To make a guess based on what you know or think is called a

• question

• expectation

• prediction

Multiple Choice

Scientist build a small version that is similar to the real thing but not exactly. It is called a

• Model

• Copy cat

• example

Multiple Choice

A scientist will use these to make an observation.

• Forceps

• Five Senses

• Notepad

5 Steps in a Science Investigation

• Ask a question

• Hypothesize

• Predict and Plan an Investigation

• Experiment

• Draw conclusions

Hypothesize

A hypothesis is a statement that could answer a science question.

You have to be able to test a hypothesis.

Predict and Plan an Investigation

Predict what you will have observed if your hypothesis is correct.

Plan an investigation to test your hypothesis.

Experiment

In science, an experiment is a test you do to gather evidence.

In an experiment, only one factor should change at a time.

The thing that changes is the variable.

Draw Conclusions

After you do your investigation, study your results.

Draw a conclusion about your results.

Ask yourself, "Do the results support my hypothesis?"

Share your conclusion with others.

Multiple Choice

A conclusion is...

• your thoughts at the end of an investigation

• a guess

Multiple Choice

Scientist plan and carry this out to answer their questions.

• investigation

• conclusion

Multiple Choice

This is something that will change during an experiment.

• model

• variable

Multiple Choice

To make a guess based on what you know or think is called a

• question

• prediction

Multiple Choice

This is a statement that will answer a question you want to investigate.

• Experiment

• Hypothesis