3. 1. Identify the Problem or Question
2. Collect Background Information
3. Form a Hypothesis
4. Test the Hypothesis
5. Analyze the Results
6. Draw Conclusions and Communicate
Results
Scientific Inquiry Process
Observations are tricky…one of the hardest things to do, mainly because we oversimplify and don’t give it the attention we should.
Just like Sheldon and Leonard, you can use scientific inquiry to solve problems in your everyday, high school lives…for instance, friendship drama.
1) Question/Problem: You notice your best friend Ashley is being frosty to you but extra friendly to everyone else in your friend group. You ask yourself “Why is Ashley mad at me?”
2) Background Knowledge: You ask your friends why Ashley is mad. Then you look through your Facebook posts to see if you wrote anything offensive. You see that yesterday you wrote a post saying Ashley’s skinny jeans don’t make her look very skinny.
3) Form a hypothesis: You’re pretty sure Ashley is mad about your post. You think to yourself “If I remove the skinny jeans post and make a new Facebook post about my insensitivity, then Ashley will stop being mad at me.”
4) Test the hypothesis: While your chemistry teacher is lecturing over scientific inquiry, you delete the old post and write a new Facebook post about how you made a mean and unfunny joke about a friend and how sorry you are about hurting her feelings. For good measure, you add that you’re a little jealous because you wish you had her curves.
5) Analyze Results: Within an hour you have 67 likes on your new post and 13 comments praising your apology. You also have one rude comment from your annoying little brother, but he’s stupid and doesn’t matter. You get a message from Ashley saying that she forgives you and asks if you want to go shopping this weekend.
6) Draw a Conclusion & Communicate Results: You learned you shouldn’t write or say mean things about your friends (or anyone else…except your annoying little brother), and apologizing and admitting you’re wrong is important. In the future, you will treat your friends better.
