VHS+Science+Lesson+01

Being a Scientist:

Here you'll learn about how to think and work as a scientist. You'll also learn how to use the science process and practice relating evidence and explanations.


 * What do you think these people are doing?
 * What questions would you ask them?
 * What does this make you think of?

When you work as a scientist, you ask questions. Scientists usually use 4 steps to find answers to their questions. The answers often lead to new questions.

Let's figure out what a hypothesis is... Scientists observe and make a prediction or hypothesis based off of what they see.



Before we go on, there's some key vocabulary that we need to talk about.

= Senses = =sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing.= = Observe = =to notice= = Affect = =change= = Bounce = spring back after hitting something

Scientists ask questions about the world around them. They find answers by forming a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, studying the data in test results, and communicating a conclusion. What they learn often leads to new questions.



Look around you. You use your senses - sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing - to observe the world.

You may have questions about what you observe. Do you wonder how things work or why things happen? What kind of bird is that? What makes lightening? You might ask, "Does temperature affect how high a ball will bounce?"



Let's test this out. Let's go through the steps listed earlier...

Part 2:

1) Last time we talked, we discussed what scientists do. They ask questions. Can you remember what they call this question? It's something we test...

2) Do you remember our hypothesis with the tennis ball? What happened?

=Think of an explanation= A scientist thinks of possible answers to questions. The answers can be possible explanations for what the scientist observes. Explanations give the reasons something happens.

When you have an idea that you think explains what you observe, you have a hypothesis. A hypothesis must be an explanation you can test. You test a hypothesis to see how well your explanation really works.

Here is one hypothesis for the ball question: "A frozen ball will not bounce as high as a ball at room temperature."



=Make a prediction=

Based on your hypothesis, you can make a prediction, or a guess about what will happen.

What is our prediction about freezing a tennis ball?

Next we need to test our hypothesis. We can do different kinds of tests but the method we use should depend on what we are testing. When you design an experiment, you identify variables. Variables are all the things, or factors, that can affect the results of your experiment. As a scientist, you decide which variable to change.

You change one thing so you learn the effect of that single change. In the ball experiment, are variable is the temperature of the ball.

Most factors in an experiment do not change. For example, you use the same ball and drop it from the same height. These factors are called controls. Controls do not affect what happens. Our control is the ball itself. Now as we experiment, lets gather some data (facts about the experiment).

(call on student to write on board and collect data).

= Conclusion = Finally, you make a conclusion about the experiment and tell it to the other scientists. The conclusion tells what happened. It also compares the results to the hypothesis. The results of the experiment support your hypothesis.