The Scientific Method in Fairy Tale Forest

The Scientific Method in Fairy Tale Forest draws on fairy tales as the context for practicing the scientific method and learning scientific knowledge.

It combines reading with science, and therefore curiosity, critical thinking, inquiry, data collection, and written expression. Other strategies, cooperative learning, summarizing, note taking, and generating and testing hypotheses are integrated.

The activities in The Scientific Method in Fairy Tale Forest support the National Science Education Standards, Teaching Standards B - an almost mirror image to the scientific method.

Science areas explored in The Scientific Method in Fairy Tale Forest are:
# Earth Science -the sun, weather, light energy
# Health Science -anatomy, criminology, human observation
# Life Science -ecology, animals, biology, plants and life cycles
# Physical Science -chemistry, chemical change, physical change, matter, physics, friction

The Scientific Method is a wonderful life skill to possess with uses beyond the area of science. Once children are practiced in conducting science experiments, they can move to solving real life problems with the method.

The phone doesn't work. Why? Use a hypothesis. The phone doesn't work because the batteries are dead. Test it out! Your baby sister is upset. Make a hypothesis. My baby sister is upset because she needs to eat something. Test it out! Was it food, or was it clean clothes or a nap?

The goal of these activities is to teach and allow students to become fluent in the scientific method and encourage them and model for them how to notice the possibility for testing scientific principles in other areas of their lives. Science doesn't happen only in science class. Show them the excitement in asking and finding the answers to their own questions!