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Focus Question: What does the term “thinking scientifically” mean?

“ Thinking scientifically” means to observe something in the world, wonder about it, then formulate a scientific question based on what you see. What makes “thinking scientifically” different from just plain ‘thinking’ is that it leads to an inquiry, which is also called a scientific investigation. A scientific investigation, otherwise known as an experiment, is when you think of a question that you want to test, formulate a hypothesis (an idea that attempts to answer a scientific question), and design and conduct an investigation, which explores the hypothesis. Then, when all the data is collected, it is analyzed (examined carefully), and conclusions are made which answer the original question.

When did humans begin thinking scientifically? Since the beginning of time, humans have used this method of thinking to build civilizations and societies. During the Old Stone Age, humans observed things in the world, thought about them, and tried out new things to find out about the way things work in our world. In time, each discovery built upon those before it, which brought us to present day. Every inventions and all the knowledge we have about the world was built from people who thought scientifically before us. Now it's our turn.

Example of thinking scientifically:

Pretend that you bought two fish at Petsmart. After looking closely at them, you notice that one seems to be growing faster than the other. You ask yourself a question, such as “Why is Nemo growing, but Marty is not?”

While thinking about why this could be, you develop a hypothesis, which is an idea that attempts to answer your question. A possible hypothesis could be “The food you are feeding them might not be good enough for Marty”, or "Marty might be sick".

Next, you decide to make a test to see what may be causing the difference in weight gain between the two fish. You design, or create, your own experiment. Experiments are tests whereby we are able to see whether or not our predictions are acceptable.

Stop and Think: Recap

Okay, so when a person thinks scientifically like a scientist he/she comes up with a question to test, formulate a hypothesis, and design an experiment.

At what point in history did humans begin to show evidence of thinking scientifically? The first sign of the ability for humans to think scientifically occurred during the New Stone Age, 12,000 through about 6,000 BC. Archaeologists believe that the idea to build houses during this time inspired humans to think about how to use land for living. Agriculture, the raising of crops and animals for human use, became the most important project for humans. People began to experiment with the land to figure out how it could be used. What are some ideas for experiments humans may have attempted?

It is important to wonder about things in our world and why they happen. If people didn’t wonder why the Moon changes shape in the sky, we would have never walked on the Moon.

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