Girl Scout Activity Zone: Seniors (Grades 9-10) - Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey

Explore how scientists solve problems as you create a test to learn more about your environment. Then, find out how you can help real scientists with their research! 

Activity:
To get started, gather a few sheets of blank paper, a pencil, and some markers or colored pencils. You’ll also need a set of “field tools” to help you to take field notes about your environment. You might want to include tools you have around the house, like a ruler, magnifying glass, camera, and thermometer.
Part 1: Make observations about your environment.
Observation is watching and noticing something using all of your senses, especially sight.
Start by taking a minute to make some observations about your environment (the world around you!).
If you can, go outside, but it’s alright if you’re indoors—there are still plenty of things to observe! Walk around and explore your surroundings. With your pencil and paper, collect data by writing or drawing what you observe. Make sure to add lots of detail to your data, like information about size, quantity, or color. If you have questions about what you’re observing, write them down, too!

Part 2: Form scientific questions and hypotheses.
As scientists collect data, they ask scientific questions about their observations. Once scientists have a scientific question, they make an educated guess, or form a hypothesis, about what they think the answer is. The hypothesis can be tested to see what parts (if any) can be confirmed.
Once you have some observations, choose your 3 most interesting and form 2 scientific questions for each. If you’re wondering if your question is scientific, ask yourself: Is this testable? How could I find an answer? What experiment or test could I conduct?
Then, choose one question that: 1) you’re interested in trying to answer through more observation, and 2) you could collect data and measurements about.
Finally, look back are your scientific question: what’s your hypothesis? Use what you already know or can reason to answer your scientific question.

Part 3: Test your hypothesis.
A hypothesis isn’t ever 100% right or wrong. If an experiment confirms a hypothesis, it just means that the scientist has more data about the subject, its environment, and how it interacts with the world.
So, once you have a hypothesis, design a way to test it and see what you can confirm! Create your research plan by deciding: 1) what field tools you’ll use and 2) what method or steps you’ll use to run the test. Make sure that you’ll be able to run your experiment. If needed, scale it down to something you can easily do with some simple observation!
Add “field tools” that help you learn more about you subject. For example, you might have tools to help you show what your subject looks like, how big it is, what it sounds like, or how many you see. Or, you might need to identify parts of nature and want to include field guide research as part of your plan.
Once you have a plan, test your hypothesis by observing your subject once more. This time, focus on taking field notes only on your subject. Use your set of “field tools” to add details about what your subject looks like, how big it is, what it sounds like, or how many you see.

Part 4: Analyze your results.
When scientists come back from the field, they review their notes to make sure they’re detailed and think their data means. Thinking about and understanding data is called data analysis. Scientists might compare what they saw with other data, find a way to present it (like a graph, chart, etc.), or look at their data and decide they need to collect more!
So, look at your data and analyze what you think it means: do your results support your original hypothesis? Compare your results against your original hypothesis to form a conclusion.
When this happens to scientists, they might run their experiment again, collect data over a longer period of time, or change their entire research plan! It helps them to confirm that their results make logical sense.
Optional Part 5: Participate in a citizen science project.
Now you know about the scientific method, but what can you do next? Become a citizen scientist!

Senior Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey: Jump Into the Scientific Method is adapted from meetings 1 and meeting 2 of the Senior Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey.

Related Senior video:
Senior Truth Seeker Badge:    • Girl Scout Activity Zone: Seniors (Grades ...  

Check out Girl Scouts at Home for activities to keep her inspired, engaged, and connected: www.girlscouts.org/athome
Find us at: https://www.girlscouts.org/
Follow us on LinkedIn:   / girl-scouts-of-the-usa  
Follow us on Twitter:   / girlscouts  
Like us on Facebook:   / girlscoutsusa  
Follow us on Instagram:   / girlscouts  
Subscribe on YouTube:    / girlscoutvideos