What Are the Qualities of a Good Scientific Question?

Clarity and Focus

Scientists study events, objects and organisms in the natural world, posing clear and focused questions about the phenomenon that they hope to explain. Good scientific questions will lend themselves to empirical investigation and data gathering, according to an outline posted by the Poudre Learning Center. Students often ask existence-related, or "why" questions, which science cannot readily address. Instead, scientists often focus on causal or functional issues that lend themselves to "how" questions about mechanisms or processes.

In framing the questions that guide their research, scientists always leave room for reasoning. Rather than blindly follow a step-by-step process, researchers accept the idea that multiple or even contradictory explanations may exist for the questions they want to answer. This is the position of science educators like Len Kenyon, "Science News for Kids" reported in October 2011. According to Kenyon, finding those answers often means following unexpected answers or discovering answers to a different question altogether. Scientists prepare for these possibilities.

Good scientific questions are developed with the expectation of producing measurable results to confirm or deny the original hypothesis, or result in a different problem-solving method. Scientists spend much of their time monitoring and observing aspects of their natural environment. Once the work is completed, it becomes possible to form an explanation that other researchers can verify through the available data, according to the center's overview. All data is subject to further investigation and followup, which scientists take into account in writing their questions.

Relevance is among the most significant standards of any good scientific question. A statement can be accurate, clear and precise, but ultimately meaningless if it proves irrelevant to the question being raised, according to The Foundation for Critical Thinking's 2003 publication, "A Miniature Guide to Scientific Thinking." Examples include popular beliefs, such as astrology, that cannot be verified through the scientific method. For this reason, researchers must also consider how their question relates to overall scientific advancement.