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Sunday, August 12, 2007

Thomas Review: How to Think Like a Scientist

After we finished How to Think Like a Scientist (which we spent about a week reading and talking about in small chunks) we spent a day reviewing it. I typed up four questions and had Thomas give me the answers, which I also typed. If he needed help, he had the book in front of him to page through. Then I typed up his short overview, and we placed the page in his new Science Notebook. So, here is Thomas' Review:

3 ways to get the answer to a question wrong:
1. You might have the wrong information
2. Relying on somebody else
3. Because we want the answer to be the thing we want

How do you reliably answer questions, then?
With the Scientific Method

5 parts to the Scientific Method:
1. Ask a question
2. Gather information about the question
3. Come up with an idea about the answer (hypothesis)
4. Test your idea
5. Tell others what you found

How do you test your idea (hypothesis)? What 2 things do your tests always have to have?
1. Control group: no changes
2. Experimental group: just one thing changes

My Review: I like this book. I liked the stories. They were fun. I didn't like the illustrations as much as the stories. I learned some important information.