"The Scientific Method in Everyday Life"
This scientific method interactive activity allows students to practice using the scientific method on things that happen to them every day. So when they actually need to use it for science class, it’ll be no sweat.
Objectives
Students will:
—Define the steps of the scientific method
—Use the scientific method to create an experiment in their daily life.
Materials
—Flocabulary Scientific Method Video
—Scientific Method worksheet
Time
45 minutes in class, varying times to carry out experiments (allot at least an hour)
Sequence
1. Listen to Flocabulary’s scientific method song. Ask students to pay particular attention to the hook, which lays out the steps of the scientific method.
2. Review the scientific method steps as a class. When the song is complete you can click on lyrics to learn more.
The steps of the scientific method are:
1. Ask a question.
2. Make a hypothesis.
3. Test the hypothesis with an experiment.
4. Analyze the results of the experiment.
5. Draw a conclusion.
6. Communicate results.
If this is the first time you're studying the scientific method, you can use the worksheet to fill in the steps of Galileo's experiment in the video.
3. Explain to students that they can use these steps to answer many questions in every day life. If they can ask the question, they can apply the scientific method to answer it. As a class, choose one of the questions from the list below (and definitely feel free to add your own questions–and add any good ones in the comments!). Follow the scientific method to answer the question. Then ask students to design their own experiment to answer another question from the list.
List of everyday questions to test scientifically:
—What is the fastest route from my house to school?
—What breakfast gives you the most energy in gym class?
—What is the most popular lunch option in the cafeteria?
—What type of joke makes my little brother laugh the most?
—What most annoys my best friend?
—What time of day do I feel most awake?
—What is the best baseball team in the league? (You could think about a baseball season as a prolonged set of experiments.)
—When is the best time to go to the grocery store to avoid lines?
Here’s an example of how you could set up the first experiment:
Question: What is the fastest route to school?
Hypothesis: Taking Main Street to Elm Street to avoid the light on Maple Avenue is the fastest route to school.
Experiment: Drive to school at the same time each day at the same speed, taking a variety of routes. Make sure to include the hypothesis route. Record the time for each route.
Analysis: Analyze the different route times, selecting the fastest.
Conclusion: Determine whether your route hypothesis was correct.
Discussion: Share the results of your test to help others get to school on time.
Extension
Share experiment results. Talk about ways you might keep naturally experimenting in your daily life.