Do You Really Need to be Teaching The Scientific Method?

Have you ever questioned the need to teach the Scientific Method because it isn't part of your county's or school's pacing guide or the NGSS standards?  Then read this post to help you decide!

From a Standards Perspective, No

It's not a Performance Expectation in the NGSS, but it is in the Science and Engineering Practices. With NGSS, it's meant to be woven through your curriculum as opposed to it being taught by itself.

NGSS is more correlated to the CER (Claim Evidence Reasoning), as opposed to the scientific method. 

From A Life Skills Perspective, Yes

You might think of it like the Scientific Method, or inquiry, is now referred to as "engineering practices", so it means that you should still teach it.

It will be helpful as science requires investigations and labs. It may not be assessed but it is still imperative to teach to hone their skills in doing investigations and writing lab reports.  If you think about it from a procedural perspective (outside of standards alone), they need it to successfully complete labs. You might not need to spend a ton of time on it, but I’d at least expose them to it.

So how do you teach it without spending too much time on it since it’s not standards-based?

Have Students Generate Their Own Labs

This is the blank lab report sheet I have students use when they are creating their own labs.  

Give Students an Example Lab and Have Them Identify the Steps of the Scientific Method

I use this Scientific Method Foldable to do just that.

Get Students Moving to Review the Scientific Method

We have a lot of fun reviewing with my Scientific Method Human Bingo Board. 

What else would you add to the activities that you use to review the Scientific Method or teach it in context?  I'd love to hear your ideas!