What is Science anyway?

It´s Science Fair Season again. Before you decide what you would like to do your Science Project on, you might like to ask yourself exactly what science is all about.

There´s no simple answer to this one, but one idea is: When you look around your world, you will probably have questions. Science is just a word for the ways you find the answers. You don´t need to be super-intelligent to be a good scientist. You don´t really need any special equipment. You don´t even need to give up your religious beliefs. All you need is curiosity – and Ba-Boom! You have yourself a couple of Science Projects.

One of the most famous scientists, Albert Einstein, once said that “imagination is more important than knowledge.” I´ve never spoken to him myself, but I think I understand what he means. He was talking about the creative side of science: without daydreams, there are no ideas and without ideas, there are no hypotheses. (A hypothesis is like a guess answer to a question. A good scientist will first ask “why (does something happen)?” When you have brainstormed some solutions, you pick one idea and test it. That´s called testing your hypothesis. Even the craziest ideas might be right. After all, it was only a few hundred years ago that Copernicus first thought “what if the world was round?” Now that was one of the best ever Science Projects!

There are a few rules you will need to understand when you show other scientists what you have found. Use scientific conditions when you experiment. It will make sure that you are studying the right thing! How you show your results will depend on where you are showing them. Some showcases, like Science Fairs, only allow Science Projects that fit certain rules. As long as your presentation follows these rules, you will be able to share your ideas.

Let your inner scientist out during Science Fair Season. It is one of the few opportunities you will have to take complete control of what you learn and how you learn it. Enjoy!