USING PROCESS SKILLS FOR SCIENCE INQUIRY

 

Scientists use process skills to do research.  Your will use process skills when you do the activities in this book.  When you test something, you use process skills.  When you collect data, you use process skills.  When you make conclusions and tell what you learn, you use process skills.

 

Observing

Your senses are seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting.

Use your senses to find out about objects or things that happen.

 

Communicating

Use words, pictures, charts, and graphs to share what you learn.

 

Classifying

Sort or group objects by their properties.

 

Estimating and Measuring

Estimate means to tell what you think about an object’s measurements is.

Make an estimate.  Then measure the objects.

 

Inferring

Make a conclusion or a guess from what you observe or from what you already know.

 

Predicting

Tell what you think will happen

 

Making Definitions

Use what you already know to describe something or tell what it means.

 

Making and using Models

Make a model to show what you know about something.

 

Giving Hypotheses

Make a statement you can test to answer a problem or a question.

 

Collecting Data

Record what you observe and measure.

Use graphs, charts, pictures, and words.

Use what you learned to answer problems or questions.

 

Controlling Variables

Change one thing that may affect what happens.

 

Experimenting

Plan and do an investigation to test a hypothesis or to answer a problem. Then make conclusions.