Name

_______________________________________ Date _____________________________

Identifying the Steps of the Scientific Method

Two friends played a game called “Slide It”. Each player was given ten attempts to slide a penny into a
three-inch zone at the end of a student desk.

Directions—For each item of the 13 items shown below, record the step of the scientific method that
corresponds with it using the answer bank at the bottom of the page.

1. __________________________ I discovered that my educated guess was correct: when I used my non-
dominant hand, I was able to score at least 3 points in 10 attempts.

2. __________________________ I wonder what would happen if I used two fingers to flick the coin
across the table.

3. __________________________ If I slide the penny using my non-dominant hand, then it will slide
into the scoring zone at least three times for every ten attempts.

4. __________________________ What can I do to make the penny stop in the scoring zone?

5. __________________________ My data shows that on my fourth attempt, I scored 100 points but it’s
only possible to score 1 point per attempt!

6. __________________________ Based on the data I recorded, I think that if I was given two more
attempts (11 and 12), I would score on the 13th attempt, but I would score on the 12th attempt.

7. __________________________ Now that I’ve finished playing the game and recorded the data, I’ll
make the data easier to see and understand.

8. __________________________ Materials: penny, pencil, paper, and ruler. Procedure: (A) Draw a
three-inch scoring zone on each end of a student desk. (B) Slide a penny ten times using your dominant
hand across a student desk into your partner’s scoring zone. (C) Record the results of your attempts.

9. __________________________ I’ll look at the data I collected very carefully.

10. __________________________ As I carefully looked at the data, I noticed that it repeated in a

predictable way.

11. __________________________ I noticed that when I slid a penny across a student desk while playing
“Slide It”, the penny went past the scoring zone for each of my ten attempts.

12. __________________________ Overall, the direction of the data was upward.

13. __________________________ I’ll get some lined paper to record the data on before starting the
experiment.

A. Observe E. Make a chart then start H. Patterns L. Conclusion

B. Question the experiment I. Trends M. Reflections
C. Hypothesis F. Create a graph J. Predictions
D. Design G. Analyze the data K. Outliers