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The Process of Scientific Inquiry

Scientific inquiry involves seeking explanations by scientists based on the evidence derived from their findings. It entails traditional scientific processes to make a rational conclusion. The conclusion can be drawn from a general premise using the deductive method. Hence, the involved scientists should have skills, scientific knowledge, and reasoning, including critical thinking. The inquiry can either be a descriptive, comparative, or experimental investigation. Consequently, the scientific inquiry is the process of finding contentious conclusions involves various steps. This paper, therefore, describes the systematic steps in scientific inquiry. These steps include question, research, hypothesis, experiment, observation, result, and conclusions.

           The first step of scientific inquiry is the question processing.  This step involves the interrogation of the research topics. Here, the responsible scientist comes up with crucial questions that assist in elaborating and explaining the topic of study. It is from answering the questions raised that one is able to help build the topic’s theoretical perspective (Helmenstine, 2020). The second step of scientific inquiry is conducting background research. Conducting research entails gathering as much information as possible about the subject or topic of study. Research can be conducted by reading articles and books either from the library or online. These materials are collected for citation and referencing. Moreover, research can be conducted by interviewing individuals who have knowledge of the subject being studied.

             After conducting background research on the topic of study, the next step of scientific inquiry is carrying out a hypothesis. The scientist proposes a hypothesis by trying to guess the expectation of the research. Additionally, the hypothesis tends to predict the possible outcomes of the scientific analysis. Typically, the hypothesis is formulated in terms of cause and effect. Consequently, an experiment is designed to test the accuracy and the conciseness of a hypothesis; this forms the fourth step of scientific inquiry. A scientific experiment has two variables: independent and dependent (Djeljosevic, 2019). Therefore, one variable can be changed, and its effects on the other variable are monitored for a possible conclusion.

           Observation, data collection, and analysis is the fifth step of scientific inquiry.  This step is conducted by preparing a table and graphs. All the data collected are vital whether they confirm or differ with the hypothesis. Notably, the collected data requires a mathematical analysis to counter check the conclusion (Helmenstine, 2020). Moreover, the last step in scientific inquiry is the conclusion. The conclusion either accepts or rejects a hypothesis. Subsequently, there is no wrong or right hypothesis (Djeljosevic, 2019). More importantly, the results of research studies are compiled for future experiments or reference.

           In conclusion, there are systematic steps in the process of scientific inquiry. These steps include questioning or interrogating the study topic to raise some information, research, formulate hypotheses, and scientific design experiments to test the hypothesis. Besides, the process is concluded by observing, collecting, and analyzing data from the experiments. Moreover, a conclusion is made to either accept or reject the hypothesis. These steps are systematic, and follow a sequence while conducting a scientific inquiry.  

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