The Scientific Method: Home Schooling Parents Can Teach It Correctly

By Tony Lacertosa
Traditionally the scientific method is taught as a sequence of steps to be completed in order to answer a question. Not only is this an incomplete description but, when taught this way, students do not experience the excitement of science and lose an opportunity to develop critical thinking skills. Home schooling parents are in an ideal position to teach their children how scientists really think and how they put the scientific method to use.

Students learning the steps of the scientific method are told to make observations, ask a question, gather background information, form a hypothesis, conduct experiments to test the hypothesis, analyze the data collected and draw a conclusion. Having them memorize this list, however, does not help students learn how to think scientifically.

One example of where many science curricula fall short in teaching this topic is in telling students to observe and ask questions without helping them learn how to do those things. Many teens are caught up in their own worlds and don't really observe what is going on outside of their immediate interest zone. Though this is normal behavior for their age, without teaching them how to observe and think about their observations, students will lose an opportunity to develop this very useful skill.

As a home school parent, you have the opportunity to give your children practice in observing what is going on around them and having them ask questions about it. For example, on a trip to the supermarket or department store, have your child notice where different merchandise is displayed (on a high shelf, or a low shelf, for example, or near the cash register, or not) and then have him or her come up with a few questions about why things might be placed where they are. Though this is not science, it is the same process of observation and questioning that scientists perform. Besides, relating material learned in science class to non science situations may help your child understand the importance of the discipline even if he or she has no intention of pursuing science any further.

Another example of how the scientific method should be taught can be found when telling students to formulate a hypothesis after gathering background data. What if there are no relevant background data? What if there is no obvious way to expect one outcome over another? Since hypotheses are not wild guesses, but are based on background information, does that mean that the student cannot proceed with an investigation because he or she cannot form a hypothesis? When antibiotics were first discovered, no one knew how much was needed to kill bacteria. That did not stop scientists from doing investigations to learn how concentrated penicillin needed to be in order to kill most bacteria. They proceeded without a hypothesis, and that was perfectly acceptable. A hypothesis is not always needed in a scientific investigation. This is a point that should be made clear to students.

One last example of how many students don't get the real picture of the Scientific Method in practice is when they are left with the impression that the work is completed once a conclusion is reached. In reality, scientists are just getting started with their investigations once the results of their experiments point to a conclusion. In many cases, follow-up questions are the most exciting part of the process. A true scientific mind will see results and think of many new questions that he or she would not have thought of without having seen the results of the original experiment

Going back to the penicillin example, once it was learned that penicillin and other antibiotics can kill bacteria, scientists couldn't stop coming up with new questions. See how the following would make good questions to ask after discovering that something in bread mold killed bacteria in a Petri dish.

* Will this green material kill other things besides bacteria?
* Does it kill all bacteria, or only certain kinds?
* Are there substances, other than this bread mold, that will do the same job?
* Will this newly discovered material kill bacteria only under certain temperature and/ or moisture conditions?
* Can we apply this stuff to humans and have it kill just the bacteria and not harm the human?

You can have your child practice this technique by having him or her think of 2 or 3 new questions that can be asked for every "discovery" he or she hears about in the media.

To scientists, the Scientific Method is not just a list of steps: It is an entire thought process that drives everything they do in their professional lives. Students who just memorize the steps of the method without learning how to actually apply them risk never being able to understand the excitement of science. Even worse, they miss an opportunity to learn to think in a way that is necessary for success in any field the students decide to pursue.

Home schooling provides the flexibility to overcome the limitations of how the Scientific Method is traditionally taught. Your home schooled child can learn how to think like a scientist!