That being said, it is most important that students realize
that the scientific method is a form of critical thinking that will
be subjected to review and independent duplication in order to
reduce the degree of uncertainty. The scientific method may
include some or all of the following “steps” in one form or
another: observation, defining a question or problem, research
(planning, evaluating current evidence), forming a hypothesis,
prediction from the hypothesis (deductive reasoning), experimentation
(testing the hypothesis), evaluation and analysis,
peer review and evaluation, and publication.