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Scientists seek to answer questions using a sequence of steps commonly called the scientific method. The scientific method is simply a procedure for organizing observations, making educated guesses, and collecting new information. The scientific method can be summarized as the following steps:

1 Ask a question. Scientists begin by asking, “Why does that happen?” or “How does that work?” Any question can be the start of your scientific journey. For example, “Why are my socks, which used to be white, now colored pink?”

2 Form a hypothesis that answers your question. A hypothesis is a proposed answer to your question: an educated guess based on what you already know. In science, a hypothesis must be testable, meaning that you (or someone else) must be able to determine if the hypothesis is true or false through an experiment. For example, “I think my socks turned pink because I washed them with pink laundry soap.”

3 State a prediction based on your hypothesis that can be tested. Using the proposed explanation in your hypothesis, form a prediction that you can test. For example, “I predict that if I wash a white T-shirt with pink laundry soap, it will turn from white to pink.”

4 Design an experiment to test your prediction. A good experiment is designed to best answer your question (see the upcoming “Testing your hypothesis: Experiments” section) by controlling as many factors as possible. For example, to test the above prediction, I will wash one white T-shirt with white laundry soap and one white T-shirt with pink laundry soap. I will wash them in the same washing machine with the same type of water so that everything (except the soap) is the same.

5 Perform the experiment. Time to do the laundry! If my prediction is correct, the shirt washed with pink soap will turn pink.

6 Observe the outcome. Both white T-shirts are still white after being washed with the different types of soap.

7 Interpret and draw conclusions from the outcome of the experiment. Scientists may run a single experiment multiple times in order to get as much information as possible and make sure that they haven’t made any mistakes that could affect the outcome. After they have all this new information, they draw a conclusion. For example, in my experiment, it appears that the color of the laundry soap is not what turns white T-shirts pink in the washing machine. At this point I can propose a new hypothesis about why my T-shirts have turned pink, and I can conduct a new experiment.

8  Share the findings with other scientists. This is possibly the most important step in the process of science. Sharing your results with other scientists provides you with new insights to your questions and conclusions. In my example, I did not confirm my hypothesis. Quite the opposite: I confirmed that the color of the laundry soap is not responsible for changing the color of my T-shirts. This is still very important information for the community of scientists trying to determine what, exactly, turns white T-shirts pink in the washing machine. Knowing my results will lead other scientists to develop and test new hypotheses and predictions.

Next, I describe in more detail each step of the scientific method approach to answering questions.