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Contributor: Stefani Allegretti. Lesson ID: 14039
Have you ever been curious about something? Being curious is an essential part of science! Learn how to make and record science observations.
Maybe you’ve thought, “Can a plant grow if I give it orange juice instead of water?” Or perhaps you’ve asked, “What makes the best slime?”
Science is all about being curious and asking fun questions. When you do science experiments, you get to test your ideas and see what happens!
When you observe, or look carefully at, what happens in your experiment, you're doing something very important called making scientific observations.
Watching closely to make scientific observations is an important part of the scientific method!
Keep reading to learn more about making scientific observations and to prepare for your own awesome science experiment!
In this lesson, you’ll do a cool virtual science experiment about plants and write down what you see!
Before you start, print the Scientific Method Worksheet and the Scientific Observations Chart from the Downloadable Resources in the right-hand sidebar. Also, grab a pencil or pen.
Do a Fun Science Experiment!
The first step in a science experiment is to ask questions.
These questions will help you create one research question or purpose.
Here’s the research question for this experiment.
Write this in the Purpose box on your Scientific Method Worksheet.
Make a Guess!
You have your research question or purpose!
Next, you will write your hypothesis. This is a guess about what will happen in your experiment.
Hmmm...
Hypothesis: If a bean plant does not get direct sunlight, it will not grow as tall as a plant with direct sunlight.
Write this in the Hypothesis box on your Scientific Method Worksheet.
Time to Do the Experiment!
Alright! You have your hypothesis. Now, you will do your experiment!
This is a practice science experiment, not a real-life one. You are practicing your skills so that when you do an actual science experiment, you know what to do!
The next step is to think about what materials you need. Since you are not actually conducting this experiment, you will not need to gather these materials.
Write these in the Materials box on your Scientific Method Worksheet.
Write Down the Steps!
Next, you will write down the steps for your procedure.
Step #1
Fill each cup with the same amount of dirt.
Step #2
Put a bean seed in each cup and cover each seed with dirt.
Step #3
Put Bean Plant #1 in direct sunlight and Bean Plant #2 away from direct sunlight.
Step #4
Water each plant with one tablespoon daily.
Write these in the Procedure box on your Scientific Method Worksheet.
Time to Observe!
Now, you get to observe! Yay!
Make sure you have the Scientific Observations Chart in front of you. Your Scientific Observations Chart has a table.
A table is a tool with rows and columns to write down what you see and measure. It helps you keep track of your observations in a science experiment.
Week 1
Here are the plants at the end of Week 1.
If not, write "0 inches" on the Scientific Observations Chart for each plant.
Week 2
Look at the bean plants in the picture below.
Write down the number of inches you see on the Scientific Observations Chart.
Good work!
Awesome!
Week 3
Look at the bean plants in the picture below.
Write down the number of inches you see on the Scientific Observations Chart.
Good work!
Awesome!
Week 4
Look at the bean plants in the picture below.
Write down the number of inches you see on the Scientific Observations Chart.
Good work!
Awesome!
Week 5
Look at the bean plants in the picture below.
Write down the number of inches you see on the Scientific Observations Chart.
Good work!
Awesome!
The recorded observations from your science experiment should look like this on the Scientific Observations Chart!
You did an excellent job recording your observations!
Bean Plant #1 grew 4 inches.
Bean Plant #2 grew 1 inch.
Write these in the Results box on your Scientific Method Worksheet.
Write the Conclusion!
The final part of your experiment is to write your conclusion.
Yes!
Conclusion: The bean plant without direct sunlight did not grow as tall as the bean plant with direct sunlight.
Write these in the Conclusion box on your Scientific Method Worksheet.
Excellent work recording science observations and using the scientific method!
Move to the Got It? section to see what you remember.
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