Scientific Method

What is your Objective? THE PROBLEM Curiosity???????????????? Observation is a key element here!!!

RESEARCH Gather Information Get some Background about the topic

THE HYPOTHESIS What is a HYPOTHESIS? They can never be completely proven…..but one single experiment can disprove it. IT IS A PREDICTION!! A POSSIBLE EXPLANATION FOR THE OBSERVED SET OF FACTS in the form of a statement.

Time to Experiment!!! Plan the design of your Experiment. Consider the following………

Is it a Controlled Experiment or Field Experiment?? Both Types will have Variables that need to be looked at. Independent Variable Dependent Variable Control group Constants

DEPENDENT VARIABLE (Responding Variable) The One You Measure as a result of the changing Independent variable (the data) GROWTH (CM)

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE (Manipulated Variable) The one you will vary to see how it may affect the dependent variable Amount of Fertilizer (ml)

To do a Fair Test (Controlled Experiment) and Obtain a Valid Conclusion you need to……… KEEP ALL VARIABLES CONSTANT, EXCEPT FOR THE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE. Examples: amount of sunlight, species of plant, amount of water

OTHER FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN EXPERIMENTING……. What are your controls? How many trials? What outside environmental factors do you need to keep constant? Safety precautions.

Conduct the Experiment A Experimental Group will be the group with the Independent Variable: In this example, the plants receiving the fertilizer. A Control Group will be the group without the Independent Variable In this example, the plants receiving water only A control group is for comparison.

GATHERING DATA Make a data table Label the sections of your table. # of Days Height of First Plant Height of Second Plant 1 5 cm 3cm 2 8cm 7 cm 3 16cm 12 cm Make a data table Label the sections of your table. Always put in the correct units given or being used

RESULTS Always Title graph and label the X and Y axis. What are the Independent and Dependent Variables in this experiment?

Accept or Reject your Hypothesis (Meaning: was your hypothesis supported?) What were the sources of error? What patterns did you observe? WHAT WOULD YOU PUT IN YOUR CONCLUSION?

Tomorrow. You and a partner will design and do your own experiment to test if bubble formation (of dish soap) is affected by additives such as salt or sugar. You will write your procedure today and check it with me before the end of class.

What else do you have to add to the Scientific Method to make it a Lab Report??? The Parts of a Lab Report are: Title Hypothesis Problem (Question to test) Materials Procedure (Methods used) Data Results (Graph) Discussion and Conclusions