What do scientists do? – Great Science Share Zone

Question: What do scientists do?
- Keywords:
  scientists
Asked by anon-326135 on 15 May 2022.
- John Grasmeder answered on 15 May 2022:
  
  Scientists try to understand the world around us. We examine what’s going on, we then plan and do experiments to see if we can understand how things work. We then use and share what we learn to solve problems.
- Martina Conti answered on 16 May 2022:
  
  Scientists study the world around us, the world in the past (for example archaeologists) and what is beyond earth like space, to understand how it works and how the future may look like. We do experiments, understand what they mean and talk about our results with other scientists and the public. All this improves our knowledge of the world. Scientists never stops, there’s always another question or mystery to be solved!
- Kat Hunter answered on 25 May 2022:
  
  Scientists try to answer questions that the world wants to know…such as “How did the earth form?” or How can we make electricity” or “Why does it rain?”
  
  Scientists also try to invent new things to help the world. For example – making better batteries to power cars, or breeding plants to be more resistant to disease.
  
  Day to day a scientists will do experiments and collect the results. The experiments will tell them more information about the topic they are interested in. They try to understand the results and then from that they can make changes and improvements – depending what their goals are. They will discuss with other scientists from the same area and they will work as a team to try achieve their goals.
- Krissy Reeve answered on 23 Jun 2022:
  
  How to be a scientist 101:
  1) Wonder about something and ask a question (this is called a research question): e.g. I wonder if the sea is the same temperature everywhere?
  2) think about what the answer could be (this is called a hypothesis): e.g. I think the sun warms it up from the top and so it’s colder where the sun can’t reach
  3) think about how to test your answer (your method): measure the sea’s temperature from the surface down towards the seafloor.
  4) do your experiment!
  5) plot your results (this is called data visualisation – a way to look at your data in a way that makes sense): show the sea’s temperature on the x-axis of a graph, against the sea’s depth on the y-axis of the graph – then you will see the temperature getting colder as you go deeper into the water.
  6) repeat your experiments (this is to make sure it wasn’t a fluke or a mistake the first time round)
  6) write and talk about your findings!
  See, everyone can be a scientist!

Question: What do scientists do?

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