Читать книгу Geology For Dummies - Alecia M. Spooner - Страница 29

The first step in the scientific method is simply to use your senses. What do you see, feel, taste, smell, or hear? Each of your senses helps you collect information or observations of the world around you. Scientific observations are information collected about the physical world without manipulating it. (Manipulations come later, with experiments; keep reading for the details!)

After you have collected multiple observations, you may find that there is a pattern — each dog you pet feels soft — or you may find that some observations are different from the others — most of the dogs have brown fur, but some have white fur with black spots. By summarizing your observations in this way, you prepare to take the next step in the scientific method, developing a hypothesis.