Scientific Method Stories

The Ponds• Indiana Jones and Janet were walking through the

desert. The sun was very hot and they were both terribly thirsty. Finally they came across two ponds of water. Janet went to drink from the pond on the right, but Indiana stopped her. “Look,” he said. Janet turned and saw him pointing to the bones of animals lying between the ponds. “One of these ponds is poisoned. I think that the pond on the left is safe;” “Well, I think the pond on the right is safe,” said Janet. To find out which one was safe, Indiana and Janet hid so they could watch which pond the animals drank from. As the hours went by, several animals came and drank from the pond on the left. In each case they looked fine. Then one drank from the pond on the right and fell over sick. Indiana said, “Ah ha! The pond on the left is safe for us to drink.”

Baseball• David and Eric wanted to find out what type of

baseball bat would hit a ball further. David thought that a metal bet would hit a baseball further, while Eric thought a wooden bat would hit a baseball further. They went to baseball practice to ask their coach. The coach said, “Let’s find out which is right.” The coach had each boy hit 50 balls with a metal bat and 50 balls with a wooden bat everyday during practice. They continued to do this experiment for one week. Each day both boys hit the ball further when using the metal bat. “Ha! Ha,” said David. “A metal bat will hit a baseball further.”

Rambo• The situation was critical. Rambo and his friend Glenn were

escaping from their prison camp over rough terrain. Their enemies had them running for their lives across streams and through forests. Their only hope was to hide in an area beyond the rocky slopes. As they started for the slopes, the land suddenly became flat. Rambo noticed that the land area looked very unusual. Glenn was going to cross the area when Rambo yelled to him. “Wait! Something is wrong here. I don’t think this area is safe. Lets go around it.” Glenn was not convinced. “I think you’re too nervous Rambo, this area is fine. I’m going across.” “Why don’t we test it first,” Rambo asked. He collected twenty big rocks and proceeded to throw them in a square formation. Before he finished throwing a square formation on the right side, a rock exploded. He then started a square formation on the left side. Again, after tossing some rocks another one exploded. “That’s enough proof for me, Glenn said. “Lets go around. “Wait,” said Rambo. “We have to make sure this experiment is complete and test the area around it too. Rambo proceeded to repeat the same experiment on his area. All the rocks were thrown and none exploded. “My area is safe! Lets go!!!” Rambo took off with Glenn following right behind.

Sharks• Brad and Carol were Marine Scientists with a problem. They wanted

to discover which color sharks would attack. Brad believed that sharks would attack dark colors like black, but Carol believed that sharks would attack bright colors like yellow. Brad wrapped one float with a black life jackets. He placed it in the water and observed the behavior of the sharks. After two hours the float was taken out of the water undisturbed. Brad and Carol then placed a yellow jacket around another float and placed it in the water with the sharks. In two hours this float was attacked four times. Brad felt that this problem needed to be studied more. He then took two life-sized dummies and put a yellow life jacket on one and a black life jacket on the other. Both dummies were then put in the water. Two hours went by and sharks did not attack the dummy in the black jacket, but they did attack the dummy in the yellow jacket six times. “Well, “ Carol said, “sharks do attack yellow colored objects.”