Science process skills are a set of skills used in scientific activities. Each activity is expected to facilitates students to develop science process skills such as observing, inferring, predicting, asking questions, constructing hypotheses, designing experiments, applying concepts, and communicating.

thirteen science process skills

Scientists use skills like observing, inferring, predicting, classifying, evaluating, and making models to study the world.

Activities to Teach Scientific Process Skills

1. Observations & Inference – I like to group these two skills because they are often used together.
2. Prediction – Prediction is the forecasting of future events based on past observations or available data.
3. Classifying – Classifying is typically pretty easy to kiddos.

Data sharing allows researchers to build upon the work of others rather than repeat already existing research. Sharing data also enables researchers to perform meta-analyses on the current research topic. Meta-analyses are important for gathering larger trends over a wider regional or topic area.

The best example of science playing a role in developing technology is the discovery that microwaves can pop corn, which led to the creation of microwave ovens. Technology is the application of scientific information or knowledge for the purpose ofdeveloping equipment or machineries to improve the lives of the people.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to determine if a study and its findings are reliable.

1. What is the study saying?
2. Was it properly designed?
3. Was it peer-reviewed?
4. Is it in a quality journal?
5. Did the researchers disclose their conflicts of interest?

Reliability vs validity: what’s the difference? Reliability and validity are concepts used to evaluate the quality of research. They indicate how well a method, technique or test measures something. Reliability is about the consistency of a measure, and validity is about the accuracy of a measure.

It results from poorly designed experiments, and can feature incomplete or inadequate controls. The conclusions drawn from bad research usually are later shown to be completely or partly invalid; they make only incorrect predictions, and are inconsistent with other bodies of knowledge.

In general, however, a good research question should be:

• Clear and focused. In other words, the question should clearly state what the writer needs to do.
• Not too broad and not too narrow.
• Not too easy to answer.
• Not too difficult to answer.
• Researchable.
• Analytical rather than descriptive.

Quality of individual studies assessed but not documented or used appropriately in formulating conclusions. Heterogeneity of studies not accounted for in meta-analysis. Likelihood of publication bias not assessed.