1. Do Now
You have 5 minutes to answer the following question(s). When you are done take out your binder and turn to the notes section.
Observations must be ___________ and ___________, in order to be good science.
What do you think the term “testable question” means?

3. Testable/Scientific Questions

4. Characteristics of testable/scientific questions
does not begin with "why"
usually begins with "how", "what if" or "does”

5. Characteristics of testable/scientific questions
Good scientific questions do not ask about opinions or emotions.

6. Characteristics of testable/scientific questions
Must be testable
can be investigated through research, experiments or observations

7. Ask Yourself
Could I design an experiment to test it?

8. What determines whether minerals are hard or soft?
How does the amount of weight added to the nose of a paper airplane affect the length of its flight?
What part of Orleans parish has the best soil?
How does the type of material (cotton, plastic, rubber) affect the amount of water it can absorb?
How does the amount of water effect the growth of plants?
How does eliminating half of the butter in a chocolate chip cookie recipe affect the cookie’s height?
Do chocolate chip cookies taste better than sugar cookies?
How does adding weights affect the distance a toy car travels?

9. Container Activity: Question Assignments
Discuss whether or not the question is scientific/testable using level 2 voices.
Table 1: Questions 1 and 2
Table 2: Questions 3 and 4
Table 3: Questions 5 and 6
Table 4: Questions 7 and 8
Table 5: Questions 9 and 10
Table 6: Questions 11 and 12
Table 7: Questions 13 and 14

10. Container Activity
Team will come to the board and present the following.
Is the question scientific/testable? Why or why not?
If the question is not scientific/testable, rewrite it.
If your team is not presenting, than you are tracking the speakers at the board.

11. Write a testable question and how you would test the question for each of the following ideas for experiments.
You want to figure out how many pine cones are on the average branch of a pine tree.
You want to know whether or not a McDonald’s large fry has more fries in it than a medium fry.
You want to know whether or not people can taste the difference between different colored M&Ms.
You want to know what the most popular color for a car is.
You want to know what type of soda is preferred by 8th graders at SBW.

12. Exit Ticket
George is interested in insects and wants to do an experiment. Which of the following is a scientific question about insects that he could investigate with an experiment?
A. Do ants feel anxiety?
B. Why are there so many different kinds of insects in the world?
C. Are ladybugs prettier than beetles?
D. Do different food types affect the growth rate of beetles?
Ben is starting to study some common minerals and has a number of samples. Which question about minerals could he answer through a scientific investigation?
A.  Which color of mineral is most beautiful?
B.  What determines whether minerals are hard or soft?
C.  Do shiny minerals conduct electricity?
D.  Where are the best mineral samples found?