ScienceForge ✕
◆ ScienceForge Learn 🎓 Teach 🗺️ Adventure 🤝 Together 🔁 Review ⋯ More 🧭 My Journey Teach the Cast Some of ScienceForge’s cast are still learning. When you teach them, YOU learn it best — catch what they get wrong, then quiz them.
✕ Teach Predict You be the teacher — Predict is still learning. Helping Predict figure it out is the practice. (Predict's progress stays on this device; nothing is sent anywhere.)
🎓 In a minute you'll be the teacher. Get ready to teach Predict: a scientific hypothesis.
A hypothesis is a testable prediction with a reason: 'I think … because … so we should see …'.
Teach the connections
Show how the science-method steps connect You've helped them one at a time. The real understanding is how the ideas CONNECT — teach that next.
Question (question-formation — what do we want to find out?) × Predict (hypothesis-formation — I think... because... so we should see...)
A student writes 'plants will grow taller' with no question in mind. What do Question and Predict say is missing?
Predict's hypothesis must answer Question's specific question — 'taller than what, under what condition?' — a prediction floats without the question it settles A prediction stands perfectly well on its own with no question behind it Forming a question and forming a hypothesis are unrelated
Question then says: “A hypothesis works fine with no question behind it — you can predict things at random.” — is that right?
No — Predict's hypothesis is a testable answer to Question's question; it needs that question to aim at Right, no question needed
The link: the hypothesis is a testable answer to the question you asked.
Ask the question, then predict its answer.
Setup (experiment-design — one thing changes, everything else stays) × Sample (data-collection — many measurements, then we see the shape)
You changed the light AND the water AND the pot, then measured growth. Why do Setup and Sample say your data is hard to trust?
Setup's rule — change only one thing — is what lets Sample's data point to a cause; with three variables changed, the measurements cannot tell you which one mattered As long as you take many measurements, it does not matter how many variables you changed Controlling variables and collecting data are unrelated
Setup then says: “You can change several variables at once and still know exactly which one caused the result.” — is that right?
No — without Setup's one-variable control, Sample's data cannot tell you the cause Right, changing many at once is fine
The link: change one thing, and the data can finally point to a cause.
Control the setup, and the measurements mean something.
Capstone — run one investigation together Three steps of the method. Bring in the cast member for each.
Form the question you want to answer. Who?
Who do you bring in?
Question — question-formation Sample — data collection Conclude — interpretation
Make a testable prediction with a reason. Who?
Who do you bring in?
Predict — hypothesis-formation Setup — experiment design Question — question-formation
Change one thing while holding the rest steady. Who?
Who do you bring in?
Setup — experiment-design Predict — hypothesis Sample — data collection
The synthesis: ask a question, predict an answer, and control the experiment — the backbone of the scientific method.
Question, predict, and control — how science works.
Try it in the predict tools →
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