Page 7 - 新思维科学学生用书6 样章

Working like a scientist

Working like a scientist

We can work like scientists and use the five different types of scientific enquiry to find

answers to different kinds of science questions.

Research

Sometimes we cannot find the answer to a scientific question in a direct way, such as by

doing an investigation. This might be because it is impossible or unsafe to do. Instead,
we can do research to find the information we are looking for. We can use books, use the

internet or watch videos. These are called secondary sources of information. We can use
this type of scientific enquiry to:

• find out about new scientific discoveries,
such as how the coronavirus is spread, or

discoveries made in the past, for example
how scientists first invented batteries

• build on our knowledge of a topic, such as

finding out about the respiratory systems of
different vertebrates

• compare information from different sources

and decide which answer is best, for
example finding out how different factors

can affect pulse rate, or the effects of

harmful substances in food chains
• help us realise that sometimes there are

questions that scientists don’t yet know the answers to.
For example, why does the force of gravity only pull and not push?

Fair testing

In a fair test we change one factor or variable and keep all the others the same, to try

to answer a scientific question. By changing only one variable, we know that no other
variable will affect the results of the test. For example, if we investigate the question in

Unit 2, ‘Does water temperature affect the rate of dissolving?’ then:

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