For this activity, I want you to GO OUTSIDE. You don't have togo far. Find a city park. Find a patch of grass. Find yourbackyard. Find your local playground. But find somewhere wheremaybe there is some vegetation and some nonhuman animals.

Step 1. Look around you. Make careful observations. What do yousee? What kinds of phenomena define the landscape that you seebefore you? What kinds of organisms travel along with it? How doeswater move through it (think precipitation, how does water get intothe ground? Where is the closest water body where a drop of watermight end up?) What kinds of things can't you see that you might becurious about? Don't limit yourself or your thinking. Stretch yourmind. Include the land, the sky, the soil, etc. Observe the bigpicture as well as the tiny picture.

Below, briefly describe the environment around you. Remember theenvironment includes the atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere (theground) and the hydrosphere (lakes, oceans, rain):

Step 2. Now write your observations in the form of scientificquestions. Scientific questions are those that can be addressedusing observation and hypothesis testing. Write at least tenscientific questions. Think big, think small, and everywhere inbetween.

Step 3. Pick the question that you think would be the easiest toaddress using the scientific method and try to form two differentpossible answers. Frame them in the form of scientific hypotheses:your best guess given your current knowledge of the naturalworld.

Question picked:

Hypothesis 1:

Hypothesis 2:

Step 4. Now, as best you can, write a paragraph describing anexperiment or study you could run to address your question. In yourstudy, tell me what the independent and dependent variables are.What sort of things should be controlled for?