Basic Experimental Design A Guide to Successful Science Projects & Experiments

Why Do We Do Experiments? To Learn To discover new information To test an existing theory Because our teacher tells us to!

 To test the safety of new medicines  To invent new products  To get a good grade in science  ? Practical Uses For Experiments

Is It Important For Scientists to Follow a Plan When Doing Experiments?

So you can trust the results

What is the favorite flavor of LifeSaver of _________.

What is the favorite flavor of LifeSaver?

Steps to a Science Project:  Question or Problem  Library Research  Hypothesis  Design Experiment  Conduct Experiment  Draw Conclusions  Record Data & Make Observations

Parts of an Experiment Variables: things that change in an experiment Independent Variable:I change the I.V. Dependent Variable:It changes and “depends” on what you change. Levels of the Independent Variable What about things that could change, but shouldn’t?

Parts of an Experiment Variables: Independent Variable Dependent Variable Levels of the I.V. Constants Control (or Standard) Repeated Trials

IV: ? Trials DV: Constants: Experimental Design Diagram Title: Hypothesis: Levels of I.V.