Let's Do Science

The overall aim of this blacklinemasters book is to present science as a field of study that follows a particularmethod – the Scientific Method.The work in this book will bemost suited to middle school students aged between 10 and 14 years.Basic SkillsInitially, students areintroduced to various fundamental skills of scientific research. These are: Making observations (including measurements); Representation of data (tables, bar and line graphs); Fair testing and using variables.Definitions, explanations andexamples are included with each concept. Therefore, students should be able toproceed through many of the worksheets and activities at their own pace. Whilesome worksheets have specific answers that are included in the answer key, mostare open-ended, in line with a learning outcomes-based approach. As such, classdiscussion and teacher monitoring of student work is necessary to maintain thatstudents are acquiring the skills correctly.The book is presented as asequential and cumulative attainment of a variety of interlocking skills. Mostof the activities deal with new concepts or a higher level of a concept alreadyintroduced. Sometimes, previous activities are referred to. For these reasons,it is important that the book be covered in order and that most, if not all, ofthe worksheets/activities are attempted.Some of the worksheets are verysimple and should only take five minutes; others are detailed activitiesrequiring more time.Scientific Method - ExperimentsAfter these fundamental skillshave been learned, the Scientific Method and writing of scientific reports isintroduced.The steps to testing an ideausing the Scientific Method are: observation of a happening; making an educated guess (hypothesis) as to why this occurred; designing a fair experiment to test this guess; recording observations and measurements; forming a conclusion or altering the test.It is important that studentshave an understanding that an experiment is performed because an observation wasmade initially. The experiment is a way of testing if the observation occurs allthe time, or of determining its significance.Here is an example of the ScientificMethod that you may wish to use as an introduction.A student notices that he hearsthe same bird call every morning but that the time he hears
it changes during the year. (observation) He decides that the bird calls when it sees the sun. (hypothesis - an educated guess) He may decide to test this by waking before sunrise each day to hear the bird. (designing an
experiment) He may note that the bird does actually sing as the sun rises every day. (making observations) He may conclude that his hypothesis was correct. (conclusion) NOTE: If he did not hear the birdsing every morning as the sun rose, he may want to change his hypothesis andre-test.