Here’s how to use this process of conducting experiments and drawing conclusions:

1. Ask a scientific question. For example, “Will there be any difference in the growth of a cactus plant that is watered once a week for a month as opposed to one that is not watered at all for a month?”

2. Form an educated guess. This is called the hypothesis. For example, “Cactus plants do fine in the desert for weeks without water. So watering once a week won’t make much difference.”

3. Do the experiment. For this example, your child would plant two cactus plants in the same conditions. One would receive water every week for a month and the other would not.

4. Write down your data. Record how the cactus plants are doing each week, and again at the end of the experiment.

5. See if you were right. Was your hypothesis correct? What conclusion can you draw about how much water a cactus plant needs?
   

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