Category: general science

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Questions for Young Scientists to Ask

These are great starting points to work on the scientific method with your student.  For elementary students, these are great springboards from which to use the scientific method.   You can develop an experiment to go with each of these questions (and we will post them here in coming weeks).  Complete a worksheet like the ones included at the bottom of this post, and you have just begun your Science Notebook.   Have fun!

  1. At what temperature does water boil?   Freeze?
  2. How could you separate water and sand?
  3. Does a light bulb give off heat?
  4. Does aluminum foil keep in heat?
  5. Can the sun cook food?
  6. Does the soil get warm when the sun shines on it?
  7. How does the ice cream freeze?
  8. How many colors are there in light (sunlight)?
  9. How fast do seeds germinate?  Different kinds of seeds?  At different temperatures?
  10. Can you grow plants from parts of plants?
  11. Do plants need light?
  12. Where does the water go that watered the plants?
  13. What are the parts of a flower?
  14. Does pollution hurt plants?  (Acid rain)
  15. How does gravity work on a plant?
  16. What are the parts of a corn plant?
  17. Does carbon dioxide (CO2) help a plant to grow?

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The Scientific Method

Are you doing science activities or science experiments?  Do you know it isn’t that difficult to turn an activity into an experiment?  An activity leaves out the critical thinking process that is so well formulated in the scientific method.  Use these age-adjusted steps in the scientific method to help you with your science studies by transforming your activities into experiments!

For Your Youngest Child
These questions should be asked orally.  Introduce as much vocabulary and terminology as your child has the attention span for.

What do you think will happen?
What happened?
Draw a picture of what happened and label it (with help)

For Elementary Students
These questions should be asked orally with the answers to the questions dictated by the student and recorded by the parent onto the experiment writeup or observation sheet.  If your student can write, then he should do the writing himself.  Introduce as much vocabulary and terminology as your child has the attention span for.
 
What do we want to find out?
What do you think (or guess, or hypothesize) will happen?
What do we need in order to find out the answer?
How will we test our guess (or hypothesis)?
What happened? (Use a simple chart or graph as appropriate to record results)
Draw a picture of what happened and label it.
What do you conclude from this experiment?

For High School Students
The college preparatory high school student should be using all the steps in the scientific method and producing a typed or handwritten report for his or her science notebook.  The italicized steps below require more effort and are typically reserved for a science fair project or professionally published report.
 
Statement of the Problem
Research of the Literature on the Topic
Hypothesis
Materials List
Procedure Used
Observations
Calculations
Results
Statistical Analysis
Sources of Error
Conclusions
Possibilities for Future Research

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Tips for Planning Your Year in Science

  1. Choose two or three topics you would like to investigate.  You can use broad topics or activities you have always wanted to try.  You can let your child choose the topics.  You can let the test book choose for you.  Two or three is enough as you will want the freedom to let your child go further into a topic if it interests him or her.   If you have more than one child, it is easier if you study the same topic together, only on different levels.
  2. Choose the text or reference material you would like to use.  You may decide on a textbook.   Two points to remember about a textbook are:  early science texts are more readers than science references and later texts can get very boring if you use them as the sole guide for the class.  Choose a book for its information, its readability (by you not your student), and its pictures.  The younger children will learn a lot of science if it is read to them and if they can see the pictures as you explain them.
  3. Look through your science experiment books for ideas for hands-on fun.  Sometimes the book you have choosen for a reference has experiments in it.  Sometimes it is fun to use those cute little experiment books for ideas.  Choose experiments to go with  your topics.   Don’t worry about doing every experiment in the book, or every one on a topic.  Just plan for about one a week.  You don’t have to do them on that schedule though and you can add more as your children think them up.  Playing with science is important.
  4. Decide what you want for a product.  Do you want to grade something?  A test?  A paper?  A notebook?  Something aloud?  Or no grade at all?  Please try to keep a notebook.  In the notebook you can have sections for new terms, notes, maps, photos, experiment write-ups, reports, news clippings, speech notes, tests, and activity pages.  This way your child will have something concrete to remember all about his year in science.