Welcome to Our Introduction to Physics Homeschool Science Course

Course Sample for Our Introduction to Physics Homeschool Science Course

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Scientific Method

This lesson we’re going to talk about the scientific method. The scientific method is a series of 5 steps that scientists use to do research. But, honestly, you use it every day too!

The five steps are Observation, Hypothesis, Test, Collect Data, and Report Results. That sounds pretty complicated but don’t worry, they are just big words. Let me tell you what these words mean and then we’ll play with them.

Observation means what do you see, or hear, or smell, or feel. What is it that you’re looking at? Is that what it usually does? Is that what it did last time? What would happen if you tried something different with it? Observation is the beginning of scientific research. You have to see or touch or hear something before you can start to do stuff with it right?

Once you observe something, you can then form a hypothesis. All hypothesis really means is “guess”. Hypothesis is an educated guess. Tonight at dinner, when someone asks you “Do you want peas or carrots?” Say, “I hypothesize that I would like the carrots.” Everyone will think you’re a genius! Basically you’re saying “I guess that I would like the carrots”. Hypotheses aren’t right or wrong they are just your best guess.

To see if your guess is correct, you need to do the next step in the scientific method, test. The test is just what it sounds like; running experiments to see whether or not your hypothesis is correct. We’ll talk in more detail about tests in the next lesson.

As you do your tests, you need to collect data. That means collecting the numbers, the measurements, the times, the data of the experiment. Once you collect your data, you can take a look at it, or in other words analyze it.

Once you analyze your data you can report your results. That basically means tell someone about it. You can put your data in a chart or a graph or just shout it from the rooftops!