Name _______________________

The Scientific Method

Directions: Use words in the word bank to fill in the blanks.

Word Bank: science, question, research, results, investigation, hypothesis, conclusion, scientists

Mr. Smith challenged his fourth graders to work in groups to make a tower out of cards. At first, they did not understand what this challenge had to do with ______________________________. In the first group, Joseph started by leaning 2 cards against one another. Julie wanted to use 4 cards and start with a square. “Wow!” exclaimed Mr. Smith, “You both have a different ______________________________ for how to build a tower. What can you do to work together?

The leader of the second group started by asking the ______________________________, “How many cards will each of us need?” They began their ______________________________ with two cards each.

The third group asked Mr. Smith if they could look it up on the internet. When Mr. Smith looked at them funny, they replied, “You said that ______________________________ often do ______________________________ about their topic before they begin.” Mr. Smith laughed but couldn’t argue with their request.

After ten minutes, Mr. Smith said it was time to share their ______________________________. Some groups were able to make a tower and some groups were not ready. “What ______________________________ can we draw from this investigation?” Mr. Smith asked the class. Joseph raised his hand and said, “When scientists conduct the scientific method, they have to work as a team or their whole experiment will collapse just like our card tower!”