The question must be:

Answerable

in a given time. To know this we can ask ourselves what are we going to measure? o What information are we going to record? If we can determine this and can take that information in a timely manner, then our question is answerable.

Comparative

and the comparison must be based on something that we think may be influencing what we are going to measure. To know if our question is comparative, we can ask ourselves: what are we going to compare?

For example, —said the strange one— your question, why is the land that is in the highest part of the parcel dry and the one that is in the lowest part is wet? although it is comparative (high part versus low part the plot), entertaining, simple and direct, is a difficult question to answer. This, since the whys refer to the causes or reasons why something happens, and to know about them we need to know the facts of the past, and in the present we can hardly observe what happened in the past. However, these types of questions reflect our purest curiosity or concern to know what happens in what we observe and are the basis on which we can formulate a question that can be answered.

Entertaining

The question must be attractive to us. If we already know the answer, or if answering it would take a lot of time and work, it would not be interesting for us to investigate.

Simple and direct

To answer our question, complex, expensive, and hard-to-find materials and equipment should not be needed. And at least at first, complicated words of scientific language should be avoided, so that everyone can understand. Then, as we learn, we will become familiar with it and we will be able to incorporate it without problems

After animatedly conversing about the observations and questions of the plot, the new scientific friends decided to choose one of them, adjust it according to the four guidelines and design an investigation to be able to respond to Violeta's original concern.