To participate in scientific inquiry, you must have testable questions. A
testable question is one that can be answered using a systematic
process of experimentation or investigation. If a question cannot be
answered by experimentation or if its answer is based on beliefs instead
of observations, then it is not a testable question, and it is not a
good scientific question. A good way to develop a testable question is to make an observation and then think of it in terms of "How does _____ affect _____?" For example, suppose you notice that the grass in your lawn gradually gets browner during the winter. Your testable question could then be "How does temperature affect the color of the grass?" Your answer will come from conducting a test, or experiment, in which you grow grass at different temperatures and collect data showing how green the grass is at each temperature.
Question
You observe that more acorns fall off an oak tree in your yard when the sun is bright. What is a testable question related to this observation?
How does sunlight brightness affect the number of acorns that fall from the oak tree?
Not all of your scientific questions will follow the exact wording described above, but they should always be testable. As you get more practice developing scientific questions, you'll be able to ask them in a variety of ways. Because the goal of scientific inquiry is to develop new knowledge, it is crucial that your questions follow this rule of being testable. Otherwise, you will not get results that give us definitive evidence to support new knowledge and understanding.
