Formulating Scientific Questions

Look at this picture. What is a scientific question that could be asked about the picture?

Does the butterfly primarily visit orange flowers?

Which question about dinosaurs is a scientific question?

How big was the average velociraptor?

A scientist conducted an investigation about the effects of diet on disease resistance in rats and made surprising observations. The mice with a genetic ear mutation seemed to show similar patterns of resistance compared to mice with normal ears. Based on this information, what will most likely occur?

She will perform a second investigation on the role of certain genes in disease resistance.

The human genome project identified the sequence of base pairs in human DNA and identified several genes. Which question would least likely lead to a scientific investigation based on these findings?

Should there be laws to protect DNA information?

Why is this considered a nonscientific question? "What color is a great horned owl?"

The question does not require testing to answer.

A question about a moral issue

cannot be answered with scientific methods.

A scientist asks a question and discovers that increased temperature decreases the number of offspring that an organism produces. Then, the scientist asks a new question about the impact of climate change on the species because

the results of the investigation led to new scientific questions.

Look at this photo of an insect. What is a scientific question that can be asked about the insect in the photo?

How does the insect's appearance affect its survival?

Amy was observing the growth of five kinds of flowering plants on a windowsill. She noticed that some of the flowers on some of the plants turned toward the sun during the day, but the flowers on other plants did not turn toward the sun. She asked the following question. "Why do living things sometimes change direction?" Why is Amy's question not a very good scientific question?

It is too broad.

Which question could be tested in a scientific manner?

What causes some people to be color-blind?

Is this a good scientific question? "Is the lifespan of snowshoe hares, which are white in the winter and brown in the summer, affected by levels of winter snowfall?"

Yes, because the question is specific.

What is a scientific question?

a question that is based on observations and that is testable

Most scientific questions are based on

observations.