Scientific method facts for kids
The scientific method is a special way that scientists use to learn about the world. It helps them find new information, fix mistakes, and test their ideas. It's like a step-by-step plan for solving mysteries about how things work.
The Oxford English Dictionary says the scientific method is a process used in science since the 1600s. It involves carefully watching things, measuring them, doing experiments, and then creating, testing, and changing ideas (called hypotheses).
Scientists collect facts and information they can measure. They also use good thinking skills. New discoveries often help us understand or even change what we thought we knew before.
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Steps of the Scientific Method
People often tell the difference between real science and things that are not science (like pseudoscience) by whether they use the scientific method. John Stuart Mill was one of the first people to write down the steps of this method.
There isn't just one exact scientific method, but it usually includes these main steps:
Ask a Question
All scientific work starts with a question or a problem to solve. Sometimes, just finding the right question is the hardest part! The question must be something you can answer by doing an experiment.
Form a Hypothesis
A hypothesis is an educated guess about how something works. It's a possible answer to your question. A good hypothesis can be proven right or wrong. For example, "Blue is a better color than green" is not a scientific hypothesis because you can't prove it. But "More people like the color blue than green" could be a scientific hypothesis. You could ask many people and find an answer.
Plan an Experiment
If your hypothesis is truly scientific, you should be able to design an experiment to test it. An experiment should be able to show if your hypothesis is wrong. It might not always prove it right. In our color example, you might ask many people their favorite colors. Planning an experiment can be tricky. How many people should you ask? Are there ways of asking that could change the results? Scientists think about these things before they start. Usually, scientists want to test only one thing at a time. They try to keep everything else in the experiment the same, except for the one thing they are testing. This is called "isolating a variable".
Do the Experiment and Collect Data
This is when the scientist performs the experiment they planned. Sometimes, new ideas pop up while the experiment is happening. It can also be hard to know when an experiment is truly finished. Doing experiments can be very difficult. Some scientists spend most of their lives learning how to do good experiments.
Draw Conclusions
After the experiment, you need to understand your results. Sometimes, the results are not easy to figure out. Sometimes, experiments lead to even more new questions! Results can also mean different things. All of these points need careful thought.
A very important part of science is sharing your results with others. This way, other scientists can use what you've learned, and all of science can grow. Scientists usually don't trust a new discovery until other scientists have checked it. This checking process is called peer review. If the work passes peer review, it gets published in a scientific journal.
Even though these are listed as steps, the scientific method is often like a cycle. A scientist might go through these steps many times before they are happy with their answer.
Not all scientists follow these exact steps every day. But overall, it's considered a great way to discover things about the world. It's the main way scientists think about how scientific knowledge is built.
Parts of the Scientific Method
- Observations and Measurements: This involves carefully watching, defining, and measuring what you are studying. Scientists often look at past experiments, their own observations, and the work of other scientists. Measurements are usually put into tables, graphs, or maps. Scientists might use tools like thermometers or spectroscopes. New tools often help science advance.
- Hypotheses: At this stage, scientists try to explain their observations and measurements. They can use their creativity or ideas from other areas to imagine possible explanations. Many scientists have talked about having a "flash of inspiration" or a hunch that made them look for evidence.
- Predictions: Scientists then make predictions based on their hypothesis. These predictions are logical guesses about what will happen. They might predict the outcome of a lab experiment or what they will see in nature. If a prediction can't be tested by observation or experiment, the hypothesis isn't truly scientific yet. New technology might make experiments possible in the future. For example, we might guess that other intelligent life exists, but we can't test it yet. So, science can't say much about it.
- Experiments: Scientists then do experiments to see if their hypothesis and predictions were correct. Experiments can take many forms. They could be a classic lab experiment, a double-blind study, or an archaeological dig. Even flying a plane from New York to Paris is an experiment that tests the aerodynamic ideas used to build the plane!
If a hypothesis doesn't lead to interesting predictions, scientists might rethink their idea. If an experiment doesn't give interesting results, they might rethink the experiment itself, the hypothesis, or even what they are studying.
Other scientists can join the process at any step. They might use someone else's observations and create their own hypothesis. Or they might use a hypothesis and make their own predictions. Often, the person who makes a prediction isn't the one who does the experiment.
Example: Dissolving Sugar in Water
Let's try to find out how temperature affects how sugar dissolves in water. Here's one way to do it using the scientific method.
Our Question
Does sugar dissolve faster in hot water or cold water? Does the temperature change how quickly the sugar dissolves? This is our starting question!
Planning the Experiment
A simple experiment would be to dissolve sugar in water at different temperatures. We would then record how long it takes for the sugar to dissolve. This would test the idea (hypothesis) that the speed of dissolving changes with the kinetic energy (movement) of the water molecules.
We need to use the exact same amount of water and sugar in each test. This helps us make sure that only the temperature is causing any changes we see. It's possible that the amount of sugar compared to water also affects how fast it dissolves. To be extra careful, we would also try to keep the water temperature from changing during the experiment.
This is called "isolating a variable". It means that out of all the things that could affect the result, we only change one thing in the experiment.
Doing the Experiment
We will do the experiment three times. Each time, everything will be the same except for the water temperature.
- We put exactly 25 grams of sugar into exactly 1 liter of very cold water (about 1 °C). We do not stir. We notice it takes 30 minutes for all the sugar to dissolve.
- We put exactly 25 grams of sugar into exactly 1 liter of room temperature water (20 °C). We do not stir. We notice it takes 15 minutes for all the sugar to dissolve.
- We put exactly 25 grams of sugar into exactly 1 liter of warm water (50 °C). We do not stir. We notice it takes 4 minutes for all the sugar to dissolve.
Drawing Conclusions
One good way to see your results clearly is to make a table. It lists everything that changed each time you did the experiment. Our table might look like this:
| Temperature | Dissolving time |
|---|---|
| 1 °C | 30 min |
| 20 °C | 15 min |
| 50 °C | 4 min |
If every other part of the experiment was the same (same amount of sugar, no stirring, etc.), then this table gives us strong evidence. It shows that heat affects how fast sugar dissolves.
History of the Scientific Method
Some early thinkers started developing parts of the scientific method. People like Ibn al-Haytham (965–1039), Robert Grosseteste (1175–1253), and Roger Bacon (1214–1294) all made progress.
However, it wasn't until the 1600s that the idea of using experiments became the main way to find truth in Western Europe. Important scientists like Galileo, Kepler, Hooke, Boyle, Halley, and Newton helped make this happen. Around the same time, the microscope and telescope were invented in Holland. Also, the Royal Society was formed. Both new tools and scientific groups greatly helped science grow.
Related pages
Images for kids
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Ibn al-Haytham (965–1039). Many consider him the father of modern scientific methods because he focused on using experiments and making sure results could be repeated.
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Johannes Kepler (1571–1630). He showed great logical thinking in figuring out the true path of planets.
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Galileo Galilei (1564–1642). Albert Einstein said Galileo was the "father of modern physics" because he understood that all knowledge of reality comes from experience.
See also
In Spanish: Método científico para niños
