SKILLS AND SUGGESTIONS

Scientific Skills Involved and Suggestions:

With respect to collecting data, please gather information from appropriate links given to you on this document. ANY OTHER SITES YOU GO TO HAVE TO BE PRE-APPROVED BY THE TEACHER.
With respect to recording data, please use Excel, MSWorks, Clarisworks or an appropriate spreadsheet. Make a data table with a title, variables and units, if appropriate.
With respect to analyzing data, use graphs to search for patterns. Compare data and graphs from different sites if possible. Note: nature does tend to be capricious and patterns from a single event may not mean that patterns will be the same in all cases. The more events you examine, the closer the patterns you make will approximate reality.
With respect to creative thinking, you should make a hypothesis at the beginning of each investigation. You might have to redo your hypothesis if it does not agree with the analysis.
With respect to critical thinking, after comparing your hypothesis to the analysis, you will be asked to make judgements as to the validity of your hypothesis. As noted before, nature doesn't have to fit our ideas about how it works.
With respect to communication, It is essential that scientists discuss their investigations with others who are working on the same investigation. You must discuss your hypothesis, procedure, data and conclusions with others so that they may evaluate them.