The Scientific Method

The Scientific Method

•The scientific method is an organized plan for gathering, organizing, and communicating information.  

During questioning, observe

•1. Observation – is information you obtain with your senses.

• What do you see?

• What do you hear?

• What do you smell?

• What do you feel?

• What do you taste? 

Creating a question

•After evaluating your observations, ask a question. What do you want to find out? State the problem as a question. Make the question as specific as possible.

Hypothesis

•A hypothesis is a proposed answer to the question you formulated.

•A hypothesis is an educated guess at the possible answer to the question.

•What do you think is the cause of the problem you are studying? State a logical answer to your question. This answer, which is your hypothesis, should give one possible explanation for the cause.

Planning your experiment

•Scientist perform experiments to test their hypothesis.

•An experiment must be accurate and precise in order to be reproducible.

•Accuracy – the closeness of a measurement to the true value of what is measured.

• Precision – is a gauge of how exact a measurement is.  

Research the experiment

•List the materials necessary to conduct the experiment

•Design the steps and procedures for the experiment.

•Design how data will be collected.

Analyze the data

•Evaluate – Do you see any trends or patterns in the data? Do the data support your hypothesis or prediction? Do you need more information?

Terminology

•The goal of an experiment is to test your hypothesis. What is the variable? What will be the control? 

Important Terms

•Variable – in an experiment any factor that can change is called a variable.

•Constant – The factors that are kept the same.

•Independent Variable – the variable that causes a change in another.

•Dependent Variable – the variable that changes in response to the manipulated variable.

•Control Experiment – has two test groups- the control group and the experimental group. A control group is a group separated from the rest of the experiment such that the independent variable being tested cannot influence the results.

Time to draw your conclusion

•State your conclusion based on your data. Your data should either support your conclusion or lead you to another hypothesis. Have any new questions or problems come up?

Present your data

•Information obtain from observation can be presented in a variety of forms to make it easier for the viewer to obtain facts quickly. 

• Graphs and charts are a great way to present accurate information

BONUS:

Tell me the order of the Scientific method