Question

Amy was observing the growth of five kinds of flowering plants on a windowsill. She noticed that some of the flowers on some of the plants turned toward the sun during the day, but the flowers on other plants did not turn toward the sun. She asked the following question. “Why do living things sometimes change direction?” Why is Amy’s question not a very good scientific question?

Answer 1

Most of all, it's not very precise. Which living things? This is not clear. Also, what does sometimes mean?

The problem with imprecise scientific questions is that they can't be tested : so if she wanted to prepare an experiment and chose trees and tested them only at night, she would get a negative result and if she tested humans, she would get a positive result! And yet, both of these potential tests correspond to her question.

I think her question should better be "why does "name of flower" change direction over a course of a day" - that's testable, and a better start for a scientific investigation!

Answer 2

Amy's question was not a very good scientific question because THE QUESTION IS TOO BROAD.

When planning scientific investigations, scientists should be able to ask questions that are specific and testable. These questions usually serves as the basis for carrying out experiments. In a situation, where the questions been asked are too broad and untestable, it will be difficult to conduct experiments that will verify the questions.