1. Thought Swap How would you define creative thinking?
This is designed to help students think about what makes a good scientific question.
Students may be surprise to find out that it takes a great deal more creativity to be a good scientist than they would expect.
Emotional
Thinking from both the heart and the mind
Following through on inspiration
Art
Doing something new (for either the individual, community, or humanity)
Science
Use of past experiences & knowledge to come up with new solutions, insights, hypotheses.

2. Thought Swap How would you define creative thinking?
How would you define critical thinking?
This is to have students perhaps think about the detail that is required of a good scientific question.
It does require that you be objective, think logically and to weigh the types of evidence that you may have against the source of that evidence.
Logical thinking
Making conclusions based on empirical data, repeated observations.
Judging information rationally in order to decide what to believe or accept.
Examining any belief or form of knowledge in the light of the evidence for or against.
People are more likely to accept something as true from their neighbors than any other source.

3. Often science is thought of as dry, uncreative or boring.
Science requires both creative and critical thinking in designing both research questions and experiments.
Often science is thought of as dry, uncreative or boring.
However those who are creative often approach science in an exciting new way.
The purpose is to bring about a discussion about all the “requirements” of a good scientific question. Hopefully it creates an excitement in some students who might see science as dry or boring or too complicated. Just as there are different types of learning styles, there are many ways an experiment can be designed or proposed. Often a person has to be very creative especially when supplies or time is limited.
I would try to use this to try to really get all the students’ buy in for their group projects. Let them know that it takes a keen imagination looking at a problem from many angles to really decide what is a good design to answer a particular question.

4. Questions are an essential part of science.
What makes a good scientific question is that it can be answered by direct observations or with scientific tools.
Examples of questions that are not scientific are based on values or opinions like what people believe is right or wrong, or beautiful or ugly.
Scientists may start with a broad question such as “Why do people get colds?”
Next, they break the question down into smaller questions:
Can you catch a cold from someone else?
Is there a relationship between getting chills and catching a cold?
They state the final question in a way that can be answered by investigation or experiment.
A good scientific question is “Does getting chilled cause colds?”

5. What makes a good scientific question?
Answerable
Unanswerable questions are often “Why?” questions or questions that deal with opinion.
Testable by an experiment or measurement
Based on what is already known
Repeatable
When answered, often leads to further questions
One that can be answered by experimentation or observation
Often unanswerable questions are based on opinion OR Why? questions
**Is basketball a better sport than soccer? The answer is biased depending on who you ask and even if over 50% of the people surveyed like basketball better, you may still not think the question is definitively answered.
One that is based upon what is already known, whether that question is designed to reaffirm the existing paradigm or to challenge it.
One that leads to further questioning. A broad scientific question may ask “What are the impacts of introduced species?”

6. Tips on Asking Good Scientific Questions
Ask several questions about a topic
Eliminate questions that cannot be answered with DIRECT OBSERVATION or by GATHERING EVIDENCE
Break broad questions into smaller questions (that can be answered one at a time)
Write questions so they can be answered by an experiment
(“What?” questions are good question!)

7. 1. Some people work better in the morning, and other people work better in the afternoon.
2. Taking something that belongs to another person is wrong.
3. Snakes travel in pairs.
4. Animals behave in strange ways before an earthquake.
5. People shouldn’t use things unless they can be recycled.

8. 6. Basketball is a better sport than soccer.
7. You will remember best whatever you read just before you fall asleep.
8. Maria’s bike is faster than Charlie’s bike.
9. Each year when the weather gets cold, birds fly to warmer regions.
10. Trucks use more gasoline than cars.

9. Choose one of the scientific questions you developed in 1-10 above and tell what kind of evidence you would need to answer the question. How do you think a researcher could collect that evidence?