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.”