In this informal instructional session, facilitator Chase guides two children, Alana and Marwa, through a reading and discussion about experiments, hypotheses, and the scientific method. The conversation begins with a short definition of an experiment as a test of a hypothesis, prompting the children to articulate what a hypothesis is. Alana describes a hypothesis as a suggestion or idea that seeks explanation. Chase then walks them through the steps of the scientific method—observation, hypothesis formulation, experimental design, testing, and evaluation—emphasizing that experiments can occur anywhere, not just in labs. The children generate examples: Alana imagines a bioluminescence study where a scientist tests whether light emission depends on depth, and later recounts a school project on orbital mechanics where they investigated how objects might leave Earth’s orbit using magnets or models. Throughout, Chase probes their understanding, clarifies terminology (e.g., bioluminescence, “bio‑luminescence”), and asks whether these activities represent the foundation of the scientific method. Alana reflects that while their experiments aren’t the original discoveries that form the historical foundation, they serve as personal foundations for learning. The dialogue explores the value of experiments for ordinary people versus professional scientists, the broader relationship between experiments and science (including research and material discovery), and the children’s positive attitude toward learning science. The session concludes with a friendly wrap‑up.
Chapters
Okay, in which case, while you were gone, Alana, Marwa and I had one conversation about experiments, so I thought we would read more about experiments. So if you look, can you see the chat where it says, what is an experiment?
Yes, I can.
Okay, um, do you want to read the 'What is an experiment?' the short answer, Alana?
Okay, with the— do I read, do I read, uh, sorry, just read the first. Do I read the top?
Yeah, you can read the top.
Should I read what is an experiment?
Yeah, go ahead.
Okay. What is an experiment? The short answer. It's in its simplest form, an experiment is simply the test of a hypothesis. A hypothesis in turn is a proposed relationship or an explanation of phenomena.
Excellent. So let's see if we can figure out what that is. Can either of you explain that in your own words?
Of what a hypothesis is, or just—
Well, that, that would be helpful because in order to understand what this is saying, we probably have to know what a hypothesis is. So let's start there. What's a hypothesis?
Um, hypothesis is something that, or like a suggestion or maybe an idea or like kind of an idea that you come up with. So hypothesis, something that maybe you think about and then maybe like there's a reason, so you explain it. So explain it, that's maybe a hypothesis. I can't really explain it.
Okay, Marwa, do you have any idea what a hypothesis is or is Alana making sense?
Maybe.
Maybe. Um, well, sometimes context helps. So when— let's look at that first sentence in its simplest form. An experiment is simply the test of a hypothesis. So, Alana, you were saying a hypothesis is like a suggestion. Is that what you're saying? Hello, Alana, can you hear me?
Oh, sorry, I couldn't, you were frozen.
Sorry, but yeah, you were saying a hypothesis is like a suggestion, is that right?
Yeah, like a suggestion, like an idea, maybe a question everyone's wondering about.
So in which case, what would it mean to say an experiment is simply the test of a hypothesis? What does it mean to test a hypothesis and why is that an experiment?
Well, just to see if it's right, 'cause an experiment, like you experiment with things. So hypothesis, you experiment either with that hypothesis or different materials to see if that hypothesis is correct or not.
What do you think, Marwa? Is Alana making sense? He's frozen for me. Is he frozen for you?
Yes.
Okay. While he's frozen, let's go ahead and get the rest of it. Can you read the rest of it?
The rest?
Yeah, starting with basics. Yeah, all of it.
Okay, take a look, take a look at the steps of the scientific, scientific method.
You skipped over—
make observations.
Alana, you need to back up.
You skipped. Okay, okay, it's hard to manage it.
Got it.
Okay.
Experiment Basics.
The experiment is the foundation of the scientific method, which is a systematic means of exploring the world around you. Although some experiments take place in laboratories, you could perform an experiment anywhere at any time. Take a look at the steps of the scientific method. Makes— make observations, formulate a hypothesis, design and conduct an experiment to test the hypothesis, and evaluate the results of the experiment and accept or reject the hypothesis. If necessary, make and test a new hypothesis.
Thank you. So does all of this make sense?
Yes.
So how would you explain that in your own words? What, what, or, or what's— can you give us an example of what it would be to, um, use an experiment as part of the scientific method?
Um, maybe I give an example.
Please, please do.
Okay, maybe if you were a scientist studying bioluminescence and you— and we didn't know why it glows, they would say, "Hmm, maybe it glows when a certain liquid or when it's at a certain point," and then it would create an experiment, and then you were— he or she would create an experiment to test if it's real or not. It actually isn't real, but—
Got it, got it. Marwa, did you get that? See if Marwa can hear us. I'm not sure you can hear us. No? So, um, because Marwa's sound may be funny, um, so Alana, when you say test it to see if it's real, what do you mean by see if it's real.
Excuse me, I was asking—
Alana was proposing an example of an experiment, and at the end, Alana, you said to test it to see if it's real, and I was wondering what you meant by that.
Okay, um, like test to see if it's actually true or false.
I see, I see. Um, and how would you know if it's true or false?
Because maybe if the experiment doesn't make sense or they— it just doesn't go together.
Okay, and so with bioluminescence, um, are you thinking of— first, maybe Marwa, do you know what bioluminescence means? Okay, it's a pretty fancy word, Ilana. So do you want to explain what bioluminescence means?
Okay, it's this— I'm not sure what it is— like chemical or thing in the water, maybe a living thing, or again, not organ, a living thing in the water that if you shake it, uh, it glows. Sometimes you can see it at a certain point of year in the waves— sorry, in the ocean.
Have you actually seen it, Alana?
Only a little bit.
And how do you know about it?
Um, me and my family, we wanted to go watch it because we knew that it would be happening because my mom saw something on the internet. Um, so, and me and my brother asked what it was, so they told us.
Got it. And when you say a little bit, do you— it was like in the ocean, the waves, and you saw a little bit of something light in the waves? Or in a jar?
Yeah, um, in the waves. So we were standing, I think, on the edge, uh, I think on Mission Beach or something, something like that. And, uh, we were watching, and then every, every, every, every so often there would be like this wave that came with a little bouncing light in it, and then it would go away.
A wave that came with bouncing lights? Were they like twinkling or how?
No, just more like glowing. Not like glowing more, glowing less, just like keeping the same steady, I think.
Got it. So now that, um, you've explained what bioluminescence is and you've talked about your experience with it, could you just go ahead and explain your experiment again just because now we have a better, clearer picture of what you're talking about?
Okay, um, my example was— and this is probably isn't real— but my example was if you're like a scientist or something like that and you want to test like why bioluminescence glows, maybe your hypothesis was like it glows at a certain point like of higher lowness in the water, and then you made this experiment to test it out.
I see. And so higher or lower in the water, are you thinking that one hypothesis or guess is that the living things— so bio, by the way, luminescence means light and bio means alive, so it means alive living things. And so you're wondering if when it's higher in the water it glows more than what's lower in the water?
No, I don't. That's just an example. I know it actually glows when it shakes.
I see it.
It's rattled.
Okay, but no, I think that's a great example. I think that's a great example off the top of your head. Um, can you come up with another example?
With another example of an experiment? Um, maybe. Okay, maybe I did this this year. Maybe you're a little kid that's in school and you're studying experiments and hypotheses and stuff like that. And you choose a subject, which— sorry, for my school, we had to do something that included magnets or space. So me and my partner chose orbit. Sorry. And so we made this model, or actually we have to do two experiments. One was One failed and the other one made more sense.
And, um, why did our experiment work? Why did, why did, why did one make more sense? You said one made more sense. Why?
It's because one worked and one didn't, and the one that didn't work was kind of complicated, and the other one was less.
What were you— what were you trying to discover when you did that experiment?
Um, we were trying to discover how things get out of Earth's orbit.
Got it. Marwa, it looks like you're trying to say something. Did you want to say something, Marwa? Okay, when you're holding your hand up like that, it looked like maybe you were trying to, um, you know, say something. So Marwa, have you ever done any experiments? Can you explain an experiment you did?
Not really.
Okay, not really, that's okay. So Alana, what were you trying to discover in the experiment? That you did at school?
Um, we were trying to discover— or everyone had their own thing because you could choose what they wanted, but ours was trying to see how, like, how, uh, like, different things— not rockets or anything like that— like, maybe rocks could get out of Earth's orbit when they got hit.
Got it. Got it. Um, so do you feel as if, uh, those are— when you use experiments, either your bioluminescence example or the experiment you did at school, are those an example of the scientific method?
Um, what do you mean by that?
Well, the paragraph we read said, after experiment basics, in that middle section, it said the experiment is the foundation of the scientific method. And so you gave me two examples of experiments, and I'm wondering if those examples of experiments are the foundation of the scientific method, or is this talking about a different kind of experiment somehow?
Um, I mean, they weren't— since we weren't the first to try and do those things, I guess, um, they weren't really the bottom bottom foundation, but I guess in our knowledge, yes.
I see. So if I understand you correctly, you're thinking that, um, some scientists do an experiment for the first time, and that's when you say the bottom bottom, that's like the foundation, the real you know, how we get scientific knowledge. But if some of us do an experiment on our own and learn something, even though that's not the foundation, it's still, it's still our personal foundation. Am I making sense?
Yeah. Yes.
Is that what you meant?
Yes.
Okay, got it, got it. So do you think it's valuable for ordinary people to do experiments or only for scientists?
I think it's valuable even for ordinary people.
Okay. Do you know why you were doing experiments in school?
Um, we had this project assigned by our teacher, so— or actually, we did this other experiment that we chose by ourselves on the last week of school, but we did that in more than two.
Got it, got it. Um, and so would you say that experiments are part of science, all of science? What's the relationship of experiments to science?
Um, I think it's just part of science because there's a lot of science things out there.
So what is, what is science beyond experiments? What else is there? In science beyond experiments?
There's research, there's all that other stuff that's inside research, maybe just getting new materials, um, things like that. I don't know all of them because I'm not a scientist myself, but yeah.
Okay. Do you think it's worth trying to understand science and how it works?
Yeah, I do think so.
Okay, do you like science?
Um, yeah, I do.
Okay, marvelous. Well, I want to kind of wind up. It's good to kind of be, uh, talking again. Marwa, do you have anything to say before we call it a day? Okay, well, Chase, it's great to see you both, and have a good week, and hope to see you next weekend. Bye-bye, you two.
