Science Common Sense
150 - How do scientists test their hypotheses?
Imagine you have an idea about something, but you don't know if it's true. That's a hypothesis. To test it, scientists follow these steps:
- Research: Learn everything about the topic to understand what's already known.
- Ask a question: Based on your idea, ask a specific question that you want to answer.
- Make a prediction: Guess what you think will happen if your hypothesis is true.
- Design an experiment: Plan a way to test your prediction. This might involve trying something new or observing what happens in a controlled situation.
- Conduct the experiment: Try your experiment and collect data (information).
- Analyze the data: Look at the data you collected to see if it matches your prediction.
- Draw a conclusion: Decide if your data supports or rejects your hypothesis.
If your data supports your hypothesis, you might be onto something! But if it doesn't, that's okay too – you can try again or change your hypothesis. That's how scientists learn and discover new things.