Category: Science Methods
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Saving Sam – Icebreaker Activity
A cooperative activity where students devise a way to save Sam, a gummy worm trapped on a boat. Students use paperclips to try to get Sam’s life preserver on.
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Investigation: How Much Water Is In a Plant?
Students compare the amount of water in three types of plants: a root (carrot), a fruit (grape) and a leaf by weighing samples and dehydrating them overnight.
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Investigation: Plop Plop Fizz Fizz
This investigation asks beginning students to develop a hypothesis about how quickly an effervescent tablet will dissolve and then design an experiment.
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Scientific Method – Answering Causal Questions
Examine a flow chart which considers a question about water evaporation; hypotheses are proposed to test the effects of air flow, light, and temperature.
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How Can the Scientific Method Solve Real-World Problems?
Read short stories about how scientists used the scientific method to solve real problems, such as the discovery of penicillin and the cause of beriberi.
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Student Activities on the Importance of Observation
This activity combines literature with science as a fun way to show students how important it is to make good observations in science.
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Growing Sponge Animals
This simple activity provides an introduction to laboratory techniques and data collection. Students measure how a sponge animal toy grows when submerged in cold and warm water.
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Investigation: What Are the Processes of Science
Inquiry investigation where students develop hypotheses to answer a question about lung capacity, design an experiment, collect data, and draw conclusions.
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Scientific Method Scenarios
students work in groups to develop an experiment that answers a question. Students design the experiment, and must also identify the a control group and the independent and dependent variables in their experiment.
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Lab Safety Cartoon
This cartoon depicts students engaging in safe and unsafe activities. It is a good starting point for a discussion on lab safety.
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Scientific Method and the Simpsons
NOTE: This is a new version of this activity, with new stories! Old Version: Scientific Method and the Simpsons This activity requires students to read stories where experiments were performed by members of the Simpson’s family. The stories are intended to be humorous. Students must identify the manipulated and responding variables (independent and dependent), the…
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Study Planarian Regeneration with Scalpels
Students study a freshwater planarian by exploring its movements and cutting it in half to observe regeneration