Objectives

Students will:
—Define the steps of the scientific method
—Use the scientific method to create an experiment in their daily life.

Materials
—Flocabulary Scientific Method Video
—Scientific Method worksheet

Time
45 minutes in class, varying times to carry out experiments (allot at
least an hour)

Sequence
1. Listen to Flocabulary’s scientific method song. Ask students to pay
particular attention to the hook, which lays out the steps of the
scientific method.

2. Review the scientific method steps as a class. When the song is

complete you can click on lyrics to learn more.

The steps of the scientific method are:

1. Ask a question.
2. Make a hypothesis.
3. Test the hypothesis with an experiment.
4. Analyze the results of the experiment.
5. Draw a conclusion.
6. Communicate results.

If this is the first time you're studying the scientific method, you can use
the worksheet to fill in the steps of Galileo's experiment in the video.

3. Explain to students that they can use these steps to answer many
questions in every day life. If they can ask the question, they can apply
the scientific method to answer it. As a class, choose one of the
questions from the list below (and definitely feel free to add your own
questions–and add any good ones in the comments!). Follow the
scientific method to answer the question. Then ask students to design
their own experiment to answer another question from the list.

List of everyday questions to test scientifically:

—What is the fastest route from my house to school?

—What breakfast gives you the most energy in gym class?
—What is the most popular lunch option in the cafeteria?
—What type of joke makes my little brother laugh the most?
—What most annoys my best friend?
—What time of day do I feel most awake?
—What is the best baseball team in the league? (You could think
about a baseball season as a prolonged set of experiments.)
—When is the best time to go to the grocery store to avoid lines?

Here’s an example of how you could set up the first experiment:

Question: What is the fastest route to school?

Hypothesis: Taking Main Street to Elm Street to avoid the light on
Maple Avenue is the fastest route to school.
Experiment: Drive to school at the same time each day at the same
speed, taking a variety of routes. Make sure to include the hypothesis
route. Record the time for each route.
Analysis: Analyze the different route times, selecting the fastest.
Conclusion: Determine whether your route hypothesis was correct.
Discussion: Share the results of your test to help others get to school
on time.

Extension
Share experiment results. Talk about ways you might keep naturally
experimenting in your daily life.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this lesson, students will be able to:

 list the steps of the scientific method

 apply the scientific method to research

Length
30 minutes to 1 hour

Materials
 Whiteboard or chalkboard
 Dry erase markers or chalk
 Cookies
 Notebook paper
 Pen/pencil
 Tablet, computer, or projector to access lesson

Curriculum Standards
 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.3

Follow precisely a multi-step procedure when carrying out experiments, taking

measurements, or performing technical tasks.

Instructions
 Now divide students into two groups of equal numbers.
  Give only one group the cookies to eat; do not give the other group any cookies.
 Ask both groups to do as many sit-ups as they can in a two-minute period.
 At the end of the two-minute period, each student should write down how many
sit-ups they were able to complete.
 On the board, write:

o GROUP A
o GROUP B
 Now tally the total number of sit-ups completed for each group on the board.
 Explain to the students that you just conducted an experiment using the scientific
method. Have students watch the Study.com video lesson What is the Scientific
Method? - Steps and Process in its entirety.
 Write the following on the board:

o OBSERVE
o QUESTION
o FORM A HYPOTHESIS
o TEST HYPOTHESIS
o ANALYZE RESULTS
 Ask students to work independently to identify on their papers each step of the
scientific method in the experiment that was just conducted in class.
 Finally, complete the quiz associated with the lesson in Study.com as a group.

Extensions
 Have students design and conduct their own research using the scientific method.
 Ask students to look up some famous experiments from history to identify the steps
of the scientific method in each one.