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Video:How to Write a Scientific Method Worksheet for Middle School

with Milo De Prieto

The scientific method is a great critical thinking tool in the classroom. Learn how to create and implement a scientific method worksheet for a middle school class in this how-to video from About.com.See Transcript

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Transcript:How to Write a Scientific Method Worksheet for Middle School

Hello I'm Milo for About.com and today we are talking about how to write a scientific method worksheet for middle school. 


How to Start a Scientific Method Activity

There are some specific steps to writing a scientific method worksheet when working with students as we are trying to get them to develop critical thinking skills. The first step is to come up with a question, a problem that needs to be tested out to be proven true or false.

Get the children to brainstorm and get them to formulate questions based on what they are able to observe around them. The goal is for them to learn to think critically and to learn to questions and not take things for granted. Go through the questions the kids have come up with and point out the difference between observations and inferences. 


Performing Research and Forumlating a Hypothesis

The second step is to get the class to do research about the topic.The students can use books, the Internet, ask the teacher, or interview people knowledgeable in the topic. Have the students keep a journal, writing down their search, both failures and success as well as their finds. In this journal you can make special emphasis on new vocabulary they make come across. 

The third step is to formulate a hypothesis. During this step, we are getting the class to practice reasoning using the facts they have collected to re-formulate the question into a testable hypothesis. 


Conducting the Experiment

Finally, the experiment. Here you can make up an experiment for them or look through science books or the Internet to find one that is appropriate for your age group. Introduce the concepts of variables in the scientific method. Explain and make sure they understand what a controlled variable is VS an independent variable. 

Make sure to allow a space on the worksheet for a list of materials. During the experiment, the students should keep track of what's happening in their journal as accurately as possible. They should understand that they are collecting data. This is a good place to introduce the concepts of quantitative and qualitative observation in research. 


InterpretinData and Writing the Conclusion

When the experiment is finished it is time for the conclusion. Here the data collected during the experiment is analyzed and it becomes apparent if the hypothesis was correct or not. Encourage the kids to use the new vocabulary they have learned in their paper and arrange for classroom presentations of each one of the projects. 

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