Observations: Blue Jeans

Find a pair of blue jeans to observe.

Observations:

What do you observe about the jeans? Record your data.

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Did you feel the surface? Did you smell the jeans? Did you put your ear to the jeans and hear anything? As an observer or as a scientist you need to use all your senses. Can you add more observations about the jeans? If you have trouble making additional observations, the teacher may suggest some questions which will help your observation.

Asking Questions:

Once you observe the jeans you can start to ask questions. A scientist is always asking questions. She or he asks themselves questions, asks other people questions, and tries to answer the questions by experiments, by reading, or by talking with other scientists. Ask some questions about the jeans and write out your questions below.

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After you have written your questions, look at the lists written by other students.

Many of them asked different questions. Why?

 Scientists often gather observations, questions and information from several people in order to get as many viewpoints as possible. Why may you observe or question in a way which is different from anyone else in your class?

The author is older than you are, about as old as your mother or father. Is a trained scientist. Here are some questions thought of by the author. Did you ask some of the same questions? Read the questions below and check in the space to the left of the number of those questions similar to your questions.

 ________ 1. How long are the jeans?

 ________ 2. How old are the jeans?

 ________ 3. From what kind of cloth were the jeans made?

 ________ 4. Who bought the jeans?

 ________ 5. What do the round metal disks on the jeans do?

 ________ 6. Why are some legs wider than others?

 ________ 7. What gives the jeans its color and strange smell?

 ________ 8. How heavey is the fabric?

 ________ 9. What makes the seam on the outside of the legs overlap?

 ________10. Is there a tag on the back? Why do people leave the tag on the back?

 ________11. Why does jeans loose their color as they age?

 ________12. How are they given their size?

The author could think of many more questions about the jeans and so could you. Many of us ask different questions about the same object because of our differences, our experiences, and our interests.

Seeing Differences:

You have now seen one pair of jeans and asked questions about them. Are all jeans alike? People in your class vary in age, in height and in hair color. Jeans vary a great deal also. Look at other jeans and note below how they differ from the first pair.

How Do Jeans Differ from One Another?

Do jeans differ from each other according to the use and makes of them?

Searching for Answers:

In science it is not enough to observe, ask questions, and notice differences. We want to be able to ANSWER the questions we ask. There are many ways to answer my questions or your questions about the jeans. Where do YOU suggest we start?

Check with other students to see if you agree as to where to look for answers.

Before you answer some questions here is some information you might find useful.

If you measure remember a number by itself is meaningless so label your answer as to meters or centimeters, feet or inches, grams, liters, ounces or pounds.

There are several ways to measure jeans. One is to measure around the waist band. Another is to measure the length of the leg. Another is to measure the weight of the cloth. Another is to measure the number of threads there are to the inch.

Scientists always write down their results so that they will not forget. It is a good idea for you to write down information about your jean's.

Finding Answers to Questions:

Your teacher may annonunce some of the questions and help you get into small groups. Perhaps you and some of your classmates can find out the answers.

Question Selected:

Possible information sources:

Source used:

Information obtained:

Information on jeans is rather difficult to locate. Did you try a sewing book, catalog, clothing company, dictionary, encyclopedia or other reference sources? For some problems there is very little information in books and you must go to people or experiment to find answers. Don't be too surprised if people working for companies which sell the jeans do not know much about your questions. You may be the first person that asked them these questions.

From the information you and your classmates have collected go back and answer your own questions and those of the author. Write a paragraph or two about the jeans in the space below and include information about the jeans which answers these questions. You might like to take photographs of jeans, or make a bulletin board or poster display of your findings.

Robert Sweetland's Notes ©