Scientific Method Worksheet | Kids
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The scientific method is the basis of science and scientific progress, as it is used to formulate questions about the world, and then test them rigorously to come to a conclusion about the original question. Scientific method worksheets can be an effective way to get students interested in science at an early age and give them a strong foundation for later science courses.
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The scientific method is useful in other areas as well, as it teaches students evidence-based reasoning, which will benefit anyone. Broadly, the scientific method follows four steps:
- Question: Asking a question about how the natural world works, such as “Why is the sky blue?”
- Hypothesis: This is essentially an educated guess to the question based on previous knowledge, and should be testable.
- Experiment: Here, you will produce tests with a control group, experimental group, and standardized and independent variables to determine whether the hypothesis is true or false.
- Analysis: Analyzing the results lets you reject the hypothesis if the results contrasted it, or accept the hypothesis if the results supported it.
As stated above, the scientific method is useful for everyday problems. For example, if you try to use a video program to play a video and it does not work, you can begin investigating why by stating the question “Why doesn’t the program work?” You can begin with what you already know are some reasons the player might not work, such as that the file is incompatible, and then test this hypothesis by seeing whether other files of the same type play in that program. If they do, then the file type is not the problem, and if they do not, then that may likely be the reason. You could continue testing hypotheses until you arrive at the actual reason the player isn’t working.
Using Scientific Method Worksheets
Creating your own scientific method worksheets is simple. With a word processing program, you can number and name each step and provide space to the right for students to describe each step given a particular set of facts, or it could ask the student to describe each step in the process generally. You can also add pictures to represent each step to engage students.
To flesh out the method, you can make each step lengthier with substeps. For example, under the Question step, you could prompt your students to make observations about a particular subject, even simple objects in your classroom, and then ask a question that comes to mind. Then in the Hypothesis section, you could prompt students to write what they already know about the subject, and then make the question verifiable (able to be proved true or false) based on everything they know about the subject.
The Experiment section should require students to name independent, dependent, and control variables, along with the control and experimental groups. Finally, after testing, students should report their results and how these results answer the hypothesis.
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