Tag: method
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Investigation: How Does a Water Strider Stay Afloat?
This lab was modified from the “Penny Lab” to focus more on the properties of water and how surface tension is important for aquatic organisms like the water strider. The instructions were designed for an intro (vocational) biology class that only meets for a semester.
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Penny Lab: Soap and Surface Tension
Most science classes begin the year with an exercise on the scientific method. It can be difficult to plan a short activity that will reinforce the main ideas of developing and testing a hypothesis. This lab is simple and doesn’t require much in the way of materials: pennies, water, and pipettes (and paper towels for…
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Graphing Hand Span and Height
This exercise illustrates the difference between bar graphs and scatter plots and walks students through the process of representing data they collect.
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Investigation: Processes of Science
Students must develop their own causal question about what biological factors affect a person’s lung capacity, Then test their hypothesis using a respirometer.
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Demo: BTB and Carbon Dioxide
I have used this demonstration every year to introduce the scientific method. The worksheet below is optional and includes instructions for writing a lab report and doing a more involved investigation, but for the beginning of the year, I prefer to just have students observe and give their suggestions for how to test various hypotheses.…
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Scientific Method in Action
This simple worksheet has two reading passages, similar to what students may see on state standardized science tests. Students read a short description of a science experiment and must answer questions related to science methodology, such as identifying controls and variables and summarizing conclusions that can be drawn from the text. The two stories are…
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A Simple Demonstration for the Scientific Method
A simple demonstration using bromothymol blue to show students how the scientific method can be incorporated to determine why the chemical changed color after you blow into it with a straw.
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Investigation: Plop Plop Fizz Fizz
This investigation asks beginning students to develop a hypothesis about how quickly an effervescent tablet will dissolve and then design an experiment.
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Scientific Method – Answering Causal Questions
Examine a flow chart which considers a question about water evaporation; hypotheses are proposed to test the effects of air flow, light, and temperature.
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How Can the Scientific Method Solve Real-World Problems?
Read short stories about how scientists used the scientific method to solve real problems, such as the discovery of penicillin and the cause of beriberi.
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Student Activities on the Importance of Observation
This activity combines literature with science as a fun way to show students how important it is to make good observations in science.
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Investigation: What Are the Processes of Science
Inquiry investigation where students develop hypotheses to answer a question about lung capacity, design an experiment, collect data, and draw conclusions.
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Scientific Method Scenarios
students work in groups to develop an experiment that answers a question. Students design the experiment, and must also identify the a control group and the independent and dependent variables in their experiment.
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Simple Experiments with Biodegradable Packing Peanuts
Describes what to do with all those packing peanuts you’ve received with your science orders. How about these cheap and simple student experiments!