Scientific Enquiry

Key Stage 2

Meaning

A scientific enquiry is when you ask a question about nature and then design and perform an experiment or investigation that can answer that question.

About Scientific Enquiries

Scientific Enquiries give us a way to find out what is true and what is not.

The right question

For a Scientific Enquiry the question you start with is very important.

Some questions cannot be tested with an experiment or an investigation, so they are not good questions. For example; what colour is better, red or blue? You cannot measure how good a colour is and everyone will have different opinions so this cannot be tested.

Some questions cannot be tested with experiment, but can be investigated. For example; how many legs does an insect have? You cannot do an experiment to find this, you must investigate by going out and catching many insects and counting the number of legs on each to see if it's always the same.

The right test

For a Scientific Enquiry the Experiment and Investigation must test the question.

The experiment or investigation must be designed well to answer the question. You cannot measure the height of a person by counting the number of toes they have. You cannot find out "how many cans will fit in a shopping bag?" if, in your experiment, you put other things in the bag as well, or the cans are all different sizes, that would not be a fair test.

Examples

Question: Which material; cling film, foil, paper or cloth can protect chocolate from absorbing the taste of other foods?

• Experiment: Get 4 pieces of chocolate and wrap one in each of the 4 different materials. Place them in a sealed container with crushed garlic inside. Wait for a week and then taste each chocolate.

Question: Which of these dissolves in water: Sand, Salt, Flour, Sugar?

• Experiment: Pour the same amount of water in 4 cups. Put the same amount of sand, flour, salt and sugar in each one. Stir them each for the same amount of time. If the water is cloudy or the powder sinks to the bottom then it hasn't dissolved. If the water turns clear and the powder can't be seen, then is has dissolved.

Key Stage 3

Meaning

A scientific enquiry is when you ask a question about nature and then design and perform an experiment or investigation that can answer that question.

About Scientific Enquiries

Scientific enquiries must follow the scientific method which means they must test a question and make sure it is not influenced by a person's beliefs. When a person's beliefs change the outcome of an experiment this is called bias.

Any scientific enquiry should be:

• Valid - The experiment you perform must be related to the question you are testing. If you want to know the tallest person in school you can't find out by measuring the size of everyone's hands.
• Objective - It shouldn't matter who does the experiment, everyone should get the same results.
• Repeatable - Doing the same experiment over and over should always give the same results.
• A Fair Test - Only one variable should be changed in an experiment. Finding out whether mustard or cress grows faster would not be a fair test if the mustard was next to the window, but the cress was in a dark cupboard.

Key Stage 4

Meaning

A scientific enquiry is when you ask a question about nature and then design and perform an experiment or investigation that can answer that question.

About Scientific Enquiries

Scientific enquiries must follow the scientific method which means they must test a question and make sure it is not influenced by a person's beliefs. When a person's beliefs change the outcome of an experiment this is called bias.

Any scientific enquiry should be:

• Valid - The experiment you perform must be related to the question you are testing. If you want to know the tallest person in school you can't find out by measuring the size of everyone's hands.
• Objective - It shouldn't matter who does the experiment, everyone should get the same results.
• Repeatable - Doing the same experiment over and over should always give the same results.
• Reproducible - The experiment should be able to be copied by others using similar equipment to produce the same results.
• A Fair Test - Only one variable should be changed in an experiment. Finding out whether mustard or cress grows faster would not be a fair test if the mustard was next to the window, but the cress was in a dark cupboard.