Kelly works at an ice cream shop and observes that the number of people buying ice cream varies greatly from day to day. For a couple of weeks she has recorded the number of people at the shop each day, as well as the daily temperature. If Kelly is using the scientific method to better understand ice cream buying habits, her next step is to:

A. conclude definitively that people buy more ice cream when the temperature rises.
B. use the observed data to form an hypothesis about ice cream buying behavior.
C. throw out the data if it does not show a perfect relationship between buying habits and the other information she has collected.
D. state her findings as a well-tested economic principle.

Make an observation: Kelly first observed that her customers buying habits were not consistent day to day.
Ask a question: she asked herself the question that maybe those changes in habits had something to do with the weather, and observed and took notes.
Form a hypothesis, or testable explanation: Kelly is pretty sure that her customers' habits change depending on the weather, if she wants to prove it scientifically she must form a hypothesis and test it under similar circumstances to see if it is valid or not.
Make a prediction based on the hypothesis: I'm sure Kelly will predict that her hypothesis about weather affecting ice cream clients is true and valid.
Test the prediction: now she must scientifically test her hypothesis by comparing it to the previously developed predictions.
Iterate: use the results to make new hypotheses or predictions: if her predictions were right, what made them right? If they were wrong, what happened? What should she modify to test her ideas again.