How scientists, and people, discover and investigate the world around them.

Look at the world around you. Find something interesting and state at it a bit. Try to figure it out. Try to make a statement about it that is always true or always false.

Ask a question about the object or scenario you are observing.

"How does that spinning part produce energy?"
"How does that guy keep his feet over his head like that?"
"If I change the speed of the water is more or less energy produced?"

Look at your original question then change its form into an If... Then... Statement.

If I Ollie correctly, then I can clear this staircase.

-Your statement needs to be written so the answer is always a yes or a no; you did or you didn't, it works or it doesn't. There can be no "maybe" or "sometimes."

If I correctly balance the core of my mass in the middle of my forearms, then I can do a forearm inversion.

If magma is hot enough, the it can start fires in healthy forests.

If a circuit is set up in series, both light bulbs hooked up will turn on at the same time.

Use your resources! It's very likely that someone else, somewhere in the world, is wondering the exact same things you are!

Scour the Internet, your local or school library, course textbooks, a media center in a school, and credible online databases to see what information people already know about your topic.

Maybe your question is already answered - this is a good time and place to move forward with the scientific method and use your research to design your own experiment or try out someone else's.

Be creative here! Design, or mimic, an experiment that lets you test out one, two, or maybe even three variables from your hypothesis.

Be sure to take and collect data or samples during your experiment - this step is ACTIVE!

Look at your numbers, your samples, or your observations - - what do the sum of these things point to?

Was your hypothesis right or wrong; correct or incorrect? (Remember there is no middle ground here)

Make charts, tables, graphs, and diagrams to help your organize your findings in a way that gives a viewer (someone other than yourself) a clear cut answer as to whether your original hypothesis is true or false.