1. What Inquiry Skills Do Scientists Use?

2. Simple Investigation vs. Inquiry: What’s the difference?
Not organized
Any time you seek the answer to a question
Ask someone
Measure something
Look it up
Once you have the answer, you are done
An organized way to answer questions by gathering information
Steps must be followed
Observe
Gather Data
Interpret Data
Draw Conclusions

3. Observe
Use your senses to gather information about objects and events

4. Gather, record, and display data
Record your observations and measurements in an organized way

5. Measure
Compare the length, or another property to a standard unit

6. Use Numbers
Collect, display, and interpret data as numbers

7. Compare
Identify ways in which things or events are alike or different

8. Classify: group or organize objects
How we classified when we were little
How we classify in 5th grade

9. Interpret Data
Use data to look for patterns, or to predict what will happen

10. Infer
Use logical reasoning to come to a conclusion based on data

11. Predict: use observations to form an idea
Fortune tellers just guess
Scientists make educated guesses

12. Experiment
Design a procedure to test a hypothesis under certain conditions

13. Dependant Variable
A factor that may change because of the way you set up the experiment. In this example the dependant variable is plant growth.

14. Controlled Variables
Factors that can affect the outcome of an experiment. In this example the controlled variables might include hours in the sun and amount of water given each week.

15. Develop a testable question
Ask a question that can be answered using a simple investigation
Are all questions able to be answered using a simple investigation?
Does air have weight?
Does weight affect a parachute’s performance?
Does paper airplane design have an affect on performance?
Is the moon really made of cheese?
Does bigfoot exist?
Why is the sky blue?

16. These steps will be gone over in more detail in lesson 4
Hypothesis-suggest an outcome that can be tested in an experiment
Draw Conclusions-use logical reasoning to come to a conclusion based on data

17. Communicate Share results and information orally or in writing
We do this by writing in our science notebooks!

18. Make a Model
Make a mental or physical representation of a process or an object
Sometimes it isn’t practical, or even safe, to study the real thing.

19. Time and Space Relationships
Figure out the order in which things happen

20. Review
What is the difference between a simple investigation and an experiment?
What would happen if you tested a parachute’s size at the same time you tested the weight it carried?
Why is it often more practical to build a model than to conduct an experiment using the real objects?