Observation:

A good scientist is observant and notices thing in the world around him/herself. (S)he sees, hears, or in some other way notices what’s going on in the world and becomes curious about what’s happening. This can and does include reading and studying what others have done in the past because scientific knowledge is cumulative

——–Your observation might be: A steel wool soap pad gets brown flaky stuff on it after it’s used several times.

Question:

The scientist then raises a question about what (s)he sees going on. The question raised must have a “simple,” concrete answer that can be obtained by performing an experiment.

Hypothesis:

This is a tentative answer to the question: a testable explanation for what was observed. The scientist tries to explain what caused what was observed

Your Hypothesis could be that contact with water causes the brown stuff. Your Hypothesis could also be that contact with soap powder causes it. Either way, the next steps would be:

Prediction:

Next, the experimenter uses deductive reasoning to test the hypothesis

Your prediction could be that if you put a steel wool pad into water and take it out several times, rust will form on it.

Testing:

Then, the scientist performs the experiment to see if the predicted results are obtained. If the expected results are obtained, that supports (but does not prove) the hypothesis.

—You dunk the soap pad, take it out, dunk it again.

In science when testing, when doing the experiment, it must be a controlled experiment. The scientist must contrast an “experimental group” with a “control group”. The two groups are treated EXACTLY alike except for the ONE variable being tested.

—You also have one steel wool pad that you do not put into water and take out. This is your control group.