Science Process Skills

Basic Science Process Skills

The basic science process skills are what people do when they do science. Children using these same skills are active learners:

• They use their senses to observe objects and events and they look for patterns in those observations.

• They classify to form new concepts by searching for similarities and differences.

• Orally and in writing, they communicate what they know and are able to do.

• To quantify descriptions of objects and events, they measure.

• They infer explanations and willingly change their inferences as new information becomes available.

• And they predict possible outcomes before they are actually observed.

Seven Science Process Skills

1.  OBSERVING: Using your senses to gather information about an object or event. It is description of what was actually perceived. This information is considered qualitative data.

2.  CLASSFYING: Grouping or ordering objects or events into categories based upon characteristics or defined criteria.

3.  INFERING: Formulating assumptions or possible explanations based upon characteristics.

4. PREDICTING: Guessing the most likely outcome of a future event based upon a pattern of evidence.

5. MEASURING: Using standard measures or estimations to describe specific dimensions of an object or event. This information is considered quantitative data.

6. COMMUNICATING: Using words, symbols, or graphics to describe an object, action or event.

7. USING SPACE/TIME RELATIONS: Describe an object's position i.e., above, below, beside, etc., in relation to other objects. Or describe the motion, direction, spatial arrangement, symmetry, and shape of an object compared to another object.

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