• 60 prompts
  • Checked October 2026

Scientific Method Writing Prompts

A question, a fair test, it did not work, what I would try next: one experiment, start to finish.

Scientific Method Writing Prompts

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  1. Write the first line of the plan for your next experiment: the one thing you would change.Fact: the scientific method is a cycle: results lead to new guesses, which are tested in turn.
  2. Write what you would say to someone who asks whether your experiment proved your answer for good.Angle: it held up this time, in this kitchen. Say what would make you surer.
  3. Write the last page of your experiment notebook, ending with a question and not an answer.Angle: a notebook that ends on an answer is finished. One that ends on a question has a sequel.

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All 60 prompts

A question 15

  • Before you test anything, write your guess and your reason for it. Fold the page and do not open it until the end. Fact: a hypothesis is a suggested explanation of something that has been noticed.
  • Describe a question you had when you were much younger, and how you would test it now. Angle: where the moon goes, why ice floats, what the cat does all day.
  • Interview someone at home about your question before you test it. Write their guess, and whether you agree. Angle: write their reason too. People often guess right for the wrong reason.
  • Pick one ordinary thing in your home and write every question you can ask about it. Mark the one you could test. Angle: a paper towel, a rubber band, a shadow on the wall.
  • Put your question on the first line of a page. Under it, write what you would see if the answer is yes, and what you would see if it is no. Fact: scientists predict what should follow from a guess, then run tests based on those predictions.
  • Some questions are tested by doing something, others only by watching and counting. Write which kind yours is. Fact: a guess can be tested by experiments or by observations.
  • Write a guess that a test could prove wrong, and then a guess that no test ever could. Say which one is useful and why. Fact: a hypothesis must be falsifiable: some result of a test has to be able to conflict with it.
  • Write a letter to a friend explaining why your question is worth an afternoon. Angle: what will you know at the end that you do not know now?
  • Write a notice for the fridge door announcing your experiment: the question, the day, and what nobody is allowed to touch. First line: NOTICE: the three cups on the windowsill are science.
  • Write about a question you decided not to test, and why. Angle: too slow, too messy, needs a thing you do not have. A good reason is part of the work.
  • Write down one thing you noticed at home this week that you cannot explain. Turn it into a question that starts with Does, Which or How long. Angle: a puddle that stays, a door that sticks in summer, a plant that leans.
  • Write the argument between two people in your home who are both sure of the answer and do not agree. Angle: nobody has tested it. That is your opening.
  • Write the story of where your question came from: the moment, the place, and what you were supposed to be doing instead. First line: I was meant to be setting the table.
  • Write what you already know about your question, and how you know it. Fact: asking a question often involves looking at evidence from earlier experiments and other people's work.
  • Write your question three ways: too big to test, too small to matter, and just right. Angle: Why is the sky blue is too big for a kitchen table. What fits on yours?

A fair test 15

  • Choose the one thing you will change in your test. Then write everything you will keep the same, and how. Angle: same cup, same spot, same time of day, same person pouring.
  • Describe in words the table you will fill in: what goes down the side, what goes across the top, and what each box holds. Angle: decide before you start. A table made afterward remembers what you hoped.
  • Describe your test to someone who was not there, so that they could repeat it tomorrow and check you. Fact: detailed record-keeping helps other people reproduce an experiment's results.
  • Explain to a younger child what makes a test fair, using a race as your example. Angle: same start line, same distance, same shoes. What is the one difference?
  • How will you measure? Write about your measuring tool: what it is good at and where it lets you down. Angle: a kitchen timer, a ruler with a worn end, your own counting.
  • Something in your test would not hold still. Write what it was and how much you think it mattered. Angle: sunlight that moved, a floor that slopes, a hand that got tired.
  • Write a complaint from the cup, plant or toy car that was in the group where nothing was changed. Angle: it did nothing all day, and it was the most important one there.
  • Write about the moment in your test when you were tempted to help your guess along a little. Fact: striving for accuracy and honesty are named among the basic principles of science.
  • Write instructions for a helper whose only job is to stop you from fooling yourself. Angle: they hide the labels, read the ruler, or write the numbers so you cannot round them.
  • Write the list of what you need for your test, using only things already in your home. Angle: a ruler, a timer, cups that match, tape, a pencil that will not smudge.
  • Write the minute-by-minute record of your test as it happens, including the dull minutes. First line: 3:02. Nothing yet. The left cup looks the same as the right.
  • Write the plan for your test as a recipe that someone else could follow without asking you anything. Angle: amounts, order, timing. If they would have to guess, write more.
  • Write your conclusion as a letter to the person who guessed differently from you. Angle: be fair to their guess. Say what the test showed and what it did not.
  • You have your numbers. Write what they say, in two sentences, before you write what you think they mean. Angle: first what happened. Then, on a new line, what you make of it.
  • You run your test once. Write why once is not enough, in the voice of someone who wishes it were. Fact: it is common for a single experiment to be performed many times.

It did not work 15

  • Explain to your family at dinner that your guess was wrong and the experiment was still a good one. Angle: a wrong guess, fairly tested, is an answer.
  • List everything that might have spoiled your test. Put a star by the one you could fix tomorrow. Angle: the timing, the measuring, the place, the thing you forgot to keep the same.
  • Luck has helped many discoveries. Write about a lucky accident in your test, and how you knew it was worth a second look. Fact: scientists of the 19th and 20th centuries acknowledged the part that luck played in discoveries.
  • Something went wrong that had nothing to do with science: a spill, a lost page, a little sister. Write the incident report. First line: At 4:15 the experiment met the dog.
  • Unfold the page with your guess on it. Write what it is like to read your own wrong guess. Fact: a hypothesis is adjusted or discarded depending on the results of the test.
  • Write a pep talk from your experiment to you. First line: You asked a fair question, and I gave you a fair answer. It was no.
  • Write a thank-you note to a failed experiment for what it showed you. Angle: it ruled something out. That is a result.
  • Write about a result you did not believe, and what you did to check it. Angle: you did it again. Then you asked someone else to do it.
  • Write about the difference between I was wrong and it did not work. Angle: one is about your guess. The other is about your test. Which was it?
  • Write an honest report of a test that gave no clear answer at all. First line: I measured six times and the two cups are still tied.
  • Write the page in your notebook that you were tempted to tear out, and why you kept it. Angle: the page with the mistake is the one that explains the next page.
  • Write two reports of the same failed test: one that hides the failure and one that tells it straight. Which would you trust? Angle: the second is shorter and names the problem in its first line.
  • Write what you would tell a classmate who wants to change one number so that the result looks neater. Angle: say it kindly. The untidy number is the true one.
  • Your test showed the opposite of your guess. Write the first five minutes after you saw it. Angle: annoyed, then curious. Write the moment one turns into the other.
  • Your test worked on Monday and not on Tuesday. Write a list of everything that was different about Tuesday. Angle: the weather, the time, the cup, your patience.

What I would try next 15

  • If you had a whole month and a helper, how would you run your test again? Write the bigger plan. Angle: more tries, more cups, a better timer. What stays exactly the same?
  • Imagine your small experiment grew into a big one, with a hundred homes taking part. Write what one kitchen could not show. Angle: one kitchen is one answer. A hundred show whether it was the kitchen.
  • Pass your experiment on. Write instructions for someone younger who wants to try it, with one warning about boredom. Angle: tell them which part is slow and why it is worth sitting through.
  • People have worked this way for a very long time. Write a note to someone 400 years ago who tested a guess of their own. Fact: the scientific method has characterized science since at least the 17th century.
  • The steps of science are not always done in the same order. Write about the step you would do earlier next time. Fact: the steps of the scientific method are not always taken in the same order.
  • Who else should check your result? Write the invitation asking them to try to prove you wrong. Fact: in peer review, experts judge whether a piece of research was soundly done.
  • Write a letter to next year's you with advice for doing this experiment better. First line: Label the cups before you fill them. Trust me.
  • Write a talk three sentences long that tells your class your question, what you did and what you found. Angle: one sentence each. The third one may begin with So far.
  • Write about what you believe now, how sure you are, and what would change your mind. Fact: in science, what is known is continually revised.
  • Write the first line of the plan for your next experiment: the one thing you would change. Fact: the scientific method is a cycle: results lead to new guesses, which are tested in turn.
  • Write the last page of your experiment notebook, ending with a question and not an answer. Angle: a notebook that ends on an answer is finished. One that ends on a question has a sequel.
  • Write the poster title for your experiment, and the one sentence you would want a passerby to remember. Angle: a title that asks the question is better than one that gives away the answer.
  • Write the question you could not have asked before you ran your test. Angle: it starts with But then why.
  • Write what you would measure next time that you did not think to measure this time. Angle: how warm the room was, the time of day, how long you waited.
  • Write what you would say to someone who asks whether your experiment proved your answer for good. Angle: it held up this time, in this kitchen. Say what would make you surer.

How it works

Each scientific method writing prompt here is about your own experiment, a small one at home. Read in order, the four groups follow it from the question to the test, through the day it went wrong, to what you would try next.

Read the full guide

Writing prompts for scientific method practice

Start in A question: write your guess and your reason, fold the page and do not open it until the end. A fair test has the plan, the table and the dull minutes. Fifteen lines carry a fact from Wikipedia's Scientific method article; the rest are angles and first lines.

It did not work

A whole group is for the test that failed. Write the first five minutes after the result, the notebook page you wanted to tear out, or the difference between I was wrong and it did not work.

  • Write the guess down before the test. A guess remembered afterward is always a little too good.
  • Use one experiment for all four groups. The prompts read differently once the cups are real.

Questions and answers

What is a good scientific method writing prompt?

Write your question three ways: too big to test, too small to matter, and just right. Or write a complaint from the cup, plant or toy car that was in the group where nothing was changed.

What is a hypothesis?

A suggested explanation of something that has been noticed. It has to be falsifiable, Wikipedia's Scientific method article says: some result of a test must be able to conflict with it, or it cannot be meaningfully tested.

Is the scientific method always the same steps in the same order?

No. It is often presented as a fixed sequence of steps, but it is a set of general principles: not every step happens in every inquiry, and not always in the same order, Wikipedia's article says.

Do I need to run an experiment to use these prompts?

No. Each one can be written about a test you ran, one you plan or one you only imagine. The list names no experiment to carry out and gives no instructions for one.

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