Written by Most parents think of the scientific method as s that annoying thing science teachers made you do back when you were in school. But if you are a parent and really want good elementary science fair projects ideas to use with your children at home then you will have to understand the scientific method. Put simply, it is a method, or the steps you need to take to make an experiment give you results that mean something. It does not matter if you are experimenting with a fast and quick one day science project or a longer complicated high school assignment. You use the same steps. The difference is with how much time you spend on each step.
What are these steps?
The scientific method steps are: Observation, Question, Hypotheses, Experimentation and Results. You always use these steps for science projects that are experiment based. One idea that parents do not realize they can do to help explain these steps is to use a story about an everyday situation that the child can make a connection to. It is easier to remember a story than a list you memorize.
Short, quick and easy science fair projects most likely be finished in one day will probably where you will find the sort of elementary science fair projects ideas that follow the scientific method, so it will be easy to use one of these as the hook and turn it into a story to explain the process.
Say you were looking at melting ice, you could turn it into a story. May-be a young boy took a thermos to day camp in the hottest days of summer, and wants to know what size ice cube lasts the longest.
You create a story about what he thought would work best from what he has seen in the past, and what he thinks might work. Then talk about all the different things he tries to find out what size ice cube worked the best and what his final decision was. Now you have some easy to remember story points that you can use to help learn the steps. When remembering what hypotheses means, you can us the story, and ask, “What did the boy think would work best?”
After awhile you will see that by making up these stories to explain every day things, that people are always using these same steps with every day problem solving. For example, when a flashlight doesn’t work, you question why and figure it is the batteries, and so change them and you will discover if your are right or not. If that does not work, then you need to form new questions, are the connections corroded, is the bulb burnt out or were the batteries put in the right way? How many times have people done these without realizing they are using the scientific method.
If you spend time looking for elementary science fair projects ideas to use at home, you will have some fun with them and have activities you can turn into a story with your child as the star and help them learn about the scientific method.
I maintain a website with information on teacher approved, quick and easy elementary elementary science fair projects ideas that parents and teachers can use for fun and for their annual science fair project.