A Scientific Method Activity Your Students Will Love!
Do you teach the scientific method to your students? Do your students have a hard time remembering what the specific steps are in the scientific method like my students do?
No matter how many experiments or examples I went through with my class, when I set them off on their own they always forgot or just skipped many of the important components of the scientific method.
Until I started using this experiment!
Kids love science experiments and they love candy. Put the two together, and you have hit the science jackpot!
Day One of the Experiment
I gave each student a booklet that included all the steps of the scientific method with space to record observations, research, data, supplies, the procedure, a hypothesis and everything else they needed to complete as a part of the scientific method.
The question the experiment asks is: What will happen to a candy worm when it sits in water for 24 hours. I thought my students would guess right away that it would grow much larger, but they didn’t! I was actually glad they didn’t because that led to so many wonderful discussions about using research and prior knowledge to make a hypothesis (not just a random guess). They had so many valid reasons to explain why they made their hypothesis.
On day one of the experiment the students gathered research/background knowledge about candy worms (brainstorming as a group and looking at the ingredient list), made a list of supplies needed and a procedure for the experiment, and made a hypothesis.
The students also gathered data about their candy worm before the experiment started. They measured the length, width, height, weight and recorded the brand of candy and the color(s) of their worm. This was a great opportunity for them to practice their measuring skills and recording data accurately.
The worms went into a clear plastic cup with water and we set them aside on a shelf until the next day.
Day Two of the Experiment
Wow! The kids were totally bonkers when they came to school the next day and saw that their worms had become super sized! That was about all they could talk about as each classmate arrived for the day.
To finish the experiment they re-measured the worm to collect data and made observations that they drew in their experiment journal. The students then reflected on whether their hypothesis was supported or not by the outcome of their experiment.
As a closing discussion, we talked about whether or not this experiment can prove that candy worms increase in size when put in water for 24 hours and why scientists do experiments many, many times to get valid and reliable results.
I was pleasantly surprised at how much this one experiment made the scientific method stick in my students minds. My students referred back to this experiment during almost every experiment or scientific method activity we did for the rest of the year, and was mentioned as a “favorite activity” when we share memories at the end of the year.
I have this whole activity resource listed in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Click on the picture below to go directly to the resource.
