If you wanted to make a prediction about an event that required complicated analysis of data which tool would be the most ?
a. scale
b. a scientific model
c. mean median and mode
d. scientific notation

If I was going to make a prediction for a scientific data thing I would always go to plotting it as a graph – with graphics calculators you can get it to even give you an equation to follow.

The only problem with this is if you're wanting to predict data beyond the range of your given data points (extrapolating), because it is generally viewed as inaccurate.