How to be a Scientist

"How do scientist learn about the world around them?" The third grade wrote this guidebook to share their insights on the process of learning like a scientist. The content is completely from the children. They developed the headings and the explanations. It is a bit long, but even just by scanning through the headings, one can see the depth of understanding the children are developing about how to think like a scientist. In the end, my goal was not for them to learn everything there is to know about shadows (however, they did learn a lot). In the end, I wanted them to learn how to learn.

 

 

How to be a

 Scientist

Written by 3^rd Grade

2012-2013

Sabot at Stony Point

Using Our Senses To Observe

Sometimes when using our senses, we can’t focus on multiple senses at once. Try focusing on any two, three four or five senses and see if you can make sense of them.

 

How Scientists Use Their Senses

Scientists use their senses to observe the world around them. Astronomers use sight for stargazing. Chemists use taste if their designing a food.

As scientists, we used these same skills. We used our sense of smell to observe this liquid. We used touch to feel this charcoal. We used sight to observe shadows.

 

 

Observe Over A Period Of Time

Every Friday our class goes into the forest to observe the creek. Observing over a period of time is important because if you just look at something once, then you don’t have believable data. We record our data in the class binder so that we can compare it to the other days we measure. We see if it is similar or different.



Making Connections

Making connections is an important part of science. Making a connection is very simple. You just have to relate one thing that happened to you in the past to something that is happening in the present. You also have to use your brain to figure things out. For example, when we were studying shadows, we related a flashlight to the sun because we were holding it up like it was the sun. We used what we learned from this model to connect and learn more about the sun.

 

Scientists Do Things More Than Once

Scientists check something more than once because they want to be accurate. For example: Let’s say that you are measuring the depth of the creek and you measure it once and you get 17 cm.  You went back again and got 15 cm. The reason that is, is because the creek is not always going to be the same measurement because the creek always changes.

Scientists also do things more than once because you want to make sure you are accurate. For example, when I go down to the creek, I always measure in different places to find the deepest place. If I just measured once, it would be like the creek was always one depth.

 

Try, Try Again

Scientists try, try again to prove theories. If their theories aren’t right they try again. For example, when we were studying shadows, we kept trying to see if shadows disappeared at noon. We went out every day at noon to see what happened. Our answer was that they do not disappear. People had to change their mind about what they thought.

Measure

Measuring is very important in science for tests and experiments. Measuring is important because you use it in different varieties of science and without measuring it would be hard to get believable results. With measuring, it is easier to compare.

The depth group is measuring the depth of the water in the creek.

 

Be Willing to Change Your Mind Based on What You Observe

When you are doing and experiment and you have a hypothesis, maybe you have a different hypothesis than other people and then you do a test and you find out that your theory is wrong you should be willing to change your mind for example: when our class had a theory that shadows disappear at noon. We went to experiment and some people were wrong. They were willing to change their mind based on what they observed.

Learn From Your Mistakes

Sometimes people have a different hypothesis than others and they go outside and realize they're wrong but then, all of the sudden, the person realizes that he learned something from his mistake. Example: When a person in our class had a hypothesis of a single light causing multiple shadows but then we tested and his theory was wrong but we learned that a single light causes a single shadow.

Make a Guess/ Develop Hypotheses

A hypothesis is a question or a theory that you think is going to be true or happen. It may be right or it may be wrong. How do scientists make or develop hypotheses? Well once we were talking and somebody said, “Look that shadow has multiple shadows!” Then someone said, “That is because even one light can make multiple shadows!” So our teacher said, “Let’s test it!” When we went outside the {hypothesis} was not true. That is how scientists make a guess and find a theory in it.

Use Models to Learn About Other Things

Scientists use models to help them learn about the world around them.  We use models because if we don’t use models they would have to travel around the world and possibly to the sun or moon. The Earth and the sun are too big. We can’t change what the Earth or sun is doing. With models, we can make them turn different ways and we can put them at angles. With the real Earth, that would be hard. We can also make things happen faster than on the real earth.

In this picture we have made a model of earth and the sun to show

how scientists learn about the world around them.

Think Outside the Box

Scientists think outside of the box because it is useful. Thinking outside the box is when you just don’t think normally. For example, that is how multiplication was invented. Thinking outside the box is a wacky form of creativity. You can come up with new ideas.

Consistency

Be consistent. Don’t change what you are doing. For example, we measure water temperature, water depth and pH each Friday in the same way using the same instruments. If you were not consistent, you would not get correct measurements and probably get untrustworthy results.

Record Your Results

Recording is very important because if you don’t you might forget your measurement and think it is something else. Like when one of the 3^rd grade students who was in the depth group was measuring and she forgot it so she made and estimate of a higher water level.

Don’t Rush

Don’t rush it doesn’t help at all, you might get the wrong measurement if you rush your experiment. Like when a girl in the temperature group she just stuck the thermometer in the ground and took it out soon after. Later they learned that it takes about 4 minutes to change to the correct temperature.

 

Don’t Jump to Conclusions

Check multiple times until you are certain. Don’t jump to conclusions. Voting is not a conclusion. Experimenting to find out is a more reliable conclusion. For example, if a scientist were to jump to conclusions, they might not be correct and that would throw the whole experiment off.