Let's Talk Scientific Method

Oh science. Oh slippery, tangible yet abstract, exciting and tedious, thing.  Enter; the Scientific Method.

At first glance, teaching students about the Scientific Method sounds about as fun as teaching students Latin. It sounds impossible, by far. But the reality of science, and teaching students to start donning lab coats in order to become scientists, boils down to the systematic steps of the Scientific Method. Without the method we are lost when it comes to discovery. Once students understand and master the concept of the Scientific Method, students are well on their way to discovery.

As Justin, Amanda and I began plotting out our Unit Plan and focusing out lessons on Life Science, we debated how to introduce the Scientific Method. Did we start off the lesson with jumping into the steps? Is Scientific Method a lesson on its own? We found ourselves at odds, looking at the same picture with different lenses. We decided to place the procedure of the Scientific Method during our Cooperative/Inquiry Lesson Plan.

Now looking back, I think that the Scientific Method should have been taught first, or should have been its own lesson, so that students had a firm grasp of it to begin with. By the end of our time with the Bishop Dunn students, Mike and Colleen presented their lesson entirely on the Scientific Method and the students responded to it eagerly, a surprise to us all. All groups felt some reward, we watched the students implement the facts, tools and procedures that we had spent weeks giving them.

I decided to go on a small hunt on youtube for a video about the Scientific Method. I found a lot of rap videos and awkward teachers making fumbled lyrics about the Scientific Method, all i the name of education. God bless teachers, really.
But I did find a really great video by none other than Cookie Monster. Of course Sesame Street would have a well thought out video about the Scientific Method. I should have known.

I recommend this video for any teachers working on the Scientific Method. I know that Cookie Monster, or Sesame Street in general, is geared towards younger students, but really, it's funny. That's why Sesame Street is brilliant, but I won't ramble on that.

The video covers all aspects of the Scientific Method; Ask a question, Do research, Form a hypothesis, test your hypothesis, analyze data and present your outcomes. And Cookie Monster and scientific guy do it well!

In conclusion, Scientific Method does not have to be a terrifying subject to teach, after all.