SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY By Sonal Devendra
Scientific inquiry is:
The steps and strategies used to investigate a topic, question,
problem or issue of scientific nature.
Scientific inquiry refers to the diverse ways in which scientists
study the natural world and propose explanations with evidence.
Inquiry also refers to the activities of students as they develop an
understanding scientific ideas and how scientists study the natural
world.
Scientists use their skills and abilities to solve real life problems.
The steps of scientific inquiry:
1. Ask a question.
2. Perform Research.
3. Establish your hypothesis.
4. Test your hypothesis by conducting an experiment.
5. Make an observation.
6. Analyze the results and draw a conclusion.
7. Present the findings.
Ask a question.
Scientific inquiry starts with a question that is specific and
testable.
Examples:
Does the number of coils of wire in an electromagnet affect it’s
magnetic strength?
Does the surface of the ground affect how far a ball will roll?
Does the weight of a pendulum affect the time it takes for it to
swing?
Perform research.
Research on the question you chose, and prepare to choose the right
experiment to test your question.
Choose a safe and suitable technique, apparatus and materials.
Make sure that before you start your experiment, you do a risk
assessment and find all possible hazards and prevent them.
Example:
A circuit needs a certain amount of voltage. If you go over the
amount of voltage it can handle the light bulb can blow out! To
prevent this from happening you can use a resistor or use a battery
with lower voltage.
Establish your hypothesis.
Hypothesis is a proposed explanation or educated guess made on
the basis of limited evidence at the starting point of an
investigation.
Your hypothesis should also include your predictions that you can
be checked after an experiment has been conducted.
Example:
Hypothesis: People who sleep for more than 8 hours get up earlier
than those who sleep for less than 8 hours.
Test your hypothesis by conducting an experiment.
Based on the research you did, you can now conduct the experiment
you have chose.
Make sure to use the right equipment and staying at the proper
distance, time and having the correct shielding.
Also make sure that the method to get your data is suitable for the
experiment.
Example:
You ask people to participate in a survey about how much sleep they
get every day and how early they wake up. By asking more people
you will get more data.
Make an observation.
View the results of your experiment and make sure that all the
data does not have any anomalous results.
Try to conduct your experiment more than once to make so that
your results are not biased.
Make an observation.
Example:
My observation of my survey was that those who get 8 hours of
sleep are able to get up earlier than those who don’t get 8 hours
of sleep.
Analyze the results and draw a conclusion.
You can now take your experiment findings and analyze them to
determine if they support your hypothesis.
Draw a conclusion and determine wether your hypothesis was
correct or not.
Example:
In conclusion, my hypothesis was correct. Those who sleep for
longer hours have less difficulty in getting up in the morning.
Present the findings.
You can now decide how to present your results, this can be done
using a graph, pie chart, bar chart ect.
Make the graph, pie chart or presentation and display your
findings.
Take care with units and always make sure that the independent
variable is on the x axis and the dependent variable is on the y
axis.
