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Science Process Skills

The Method's the Key!

The Method's the Key!
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.87

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    dilemma, hairdo, humidity, disprove, observation, based, series, mentally, paragraph, hypothesis, frizzy, environment, record, amount, conclusion, scientific
     content words:    Toll House

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The Method's the Key!
By Trista L. Pollard 		  
1     Some of the best inventions happen by accident, like Toll House cookies. However, most inventions happen after many years of research. Scientists test and retest ideas hoping to solve scientific puzzles. Good scientists use a process called the scientific method.
 
2     The scientific method is a series of problem solving steps that help scientists answer scientific questions. You also use the scientific method when you work on experiments in your classroom. Scientists use this method to prove or disprove a scientific question. These questions usually are asked after scientists have made observations. An observation happens when you use your senses to notice your environment. For example, as you leave for school, you notice that your mildly curly hair became very curly (almost frizzy) as soon as you walked out of the door. You are not happy about this development, since it took you a long time to get your hairdo just right. Although annoying, this is an observation.
 
3     After observing your high hair, you ask yourself, "Why does my hair become very curly when I step outside?" This is your scientific question. You start to guess or think about possible reasons for your frizzy hair. The time has come for you to make a good guess or a hypothesis based on your observations. You predict that your hair becomes very curly because of the humidity in the air. To prove your hypothesis, you need to develop a procedure or plan to test your prediction.

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