Science Experiments for Kids
A guide to science experiments for teachers, parents
and students of all levels
If you need help for your science fair experiments
you've come to the right place. We'll take you through
variety of web site resources, and show you the most
important steps that you need to know for your project.
What makes good science experiments
- this is the question that you need to ask yourself
if you've never done one before, or if its been a while
- or if you simply just want to be sure that you'll
do a great job!
- See our Science
Experiment handbook for general tips for your
project. Our handbook covers many topics including
advice on how to display your project
- The first thing that need to do is properly understand
the Scientific Method
- Choosing a topic is the next thing that you need
to do. Click on the link above for great ideas for
your project
Science
Experiments for Kids - First, You'll need to know the
Scientific Method. The scientific method is based
upon evidence rather than belief. A scientist is always
skeptical of anything but good evidence. Essentially,
it involves the follwing: Observation, Question, Hypothesis,
The Experiment Itself, Analysis and a Conclusion.
Observation
The scientific method, starts by the observation of
by a scientist of the word around us. You could observe
anything at all to begin with. It could be as simple
as observing birds perching on power cables, or as complicated
as observing the intricacies of the structure of a beehive.
Question
The second step in your science fair experiments is
to formulate a good question. Scientists have to be
curious-minded people. Look at how any young kid behaves
and you will see that instinctively, a kid will poke
his nose (sometimes literally!) into almost anything
that's new and different.
So, you should ask as many questions as you can, based
on your observations. When you ask questions, you should
start off by keeping them open-ended.
Hypothesis
The next step is to form a hypothesis. This is merely
an educated guess as to the answer for the question.
How educated your guess will depend on how much you
read. This "temporary" or "tentative" answer will be
what is known commonly as the "hypothesis".Taking the
example above, you may have read books that mention
that rainbows seem to appear when the sun shines after
it stops raining. Armed with that "hint", you would
be on the right track!
The Experiment Itself!
This stage involves actually performing the tests to
see whether your hypothesis is correct. You will need
to set up several "control" tests. A control test is
nothing more than an alternative test with different
"variables". For example, if you shine some sunlight
through a fountain of water droplets in one test, you
could use a single color light (such as light from a
flourescent Ultra-Violet lamp) as a control "variable"
in your control experiment. You should have more than
one control experiment if possible.
Analysis
As you analyze your results, you must always keep in
mind that you may have made mistakes in your experiment.
Let's say you are testing whether "Bright sunlight
causes plants to grow faster". You could be measuring
the rate of growth of the same type of plant in various
locations (with varying degrees of sunlight). You would
realise that no matter how hard you try, its going to
be impossible to measure exactly how long a plant's
stem is, because some stems are slanted or curved. You
can only make your best guess. What's worse is if your
ruler is broken or inaccurate.
Once you have your results, write them neatly in a
journal. Compare your results in a table or chart, and
display
your project.
Conclusion
At this stage, you should make a decision as to whether
your results support or do not support your hypothesis.
If they do, you can then declare that your hypothesis
is correct. Hypotheses that are correctly proven eventually
become accepted as scientific "theory".
Go
to Handbook Chap 1
Go
to Handbook Chap 2
Go
to Handbook Chap 3
Go
to Handbook Chap 4
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