Supercharged Science (The Scientific Method)

by Aurora Lipper Creator

One of the problems kids have is how to experiment with their great ideas without getting lost in the jumble of results. So often students will not have any clear ideas about what change caused which effect in their results! They also have trouble communicating their ideas in a way that not only makes sense, but also is acceptable by science fairs or other technical competitions designed to get kids thinking like a real scientist. Kids constantly struggle to apply the scientific method to their science project in school, for scout badges, or any other type of report where it’s important that other folks know and understand their work. The scientific method is widely used by formal science academia as well as scientific researchers. For most people, it’s a real jump to figure out not only how to do a decent project, but also how to go about formulating a scientific question and investigate answers methodically like a real scientist. Presenting the results in a meaningful way via “exhibit board”… well, that’s just more of a stretch that most kids just aren’t ready for. There isn’t a whole lot of useful information available on how to do it by the people who really know how. This section is designed to show you how to do several cool projects (and one really nifty one at the end), walk you through the steps of theorizing, hypothesizing, experimentation, and iterating toward a conclusion the way a real engineer or scientist does. And we’ll also cover communicating your ideas to your audience using a display board and the oral presentation using top tips and tricks from real scientists.