You can’t escape ‘the Method’…not in science anyways! The Scientific Method You can’t escape ‘the Method’…not in science anyways!

The Scientific Method What is it? - it is a series of steps that a scientist follows in order to answer a question or solve a problem Why is it important? - there are things that every experiment needs to be successful and for the scientist to learn from it!

What are the steps to follow? Let’s simplify: Step 1: Identify your problem Step 2: Form your hypothesis Step 3: Perform your experiment Step 4: Analyze your results Step 5: Form your conclusion

Step 1 – Identify the Problem Before starting an experiment, it’s kind of important to know what you want to find out! Ex. I wonder what will happen if I walk out of class? Hmmm……

Step 2: Form a hypothesis Time to form your hypothesis: Hypothesis: an educated guess about what will happen Ex. If I walk out of class, then I will be written up….hmmm…

Step 2: Form a Hypothesis In your hypothesis, you want to make sure you have an independent and dependent variable… Independent Variable: What the scientist changes and controls Dependent Variable: What changes because of the independent variable; usually what is being measured Ex. If I walk out of class, then I will be written up….hmmm… what is the IV and the DV?

Step 3: Perform an experiment This is the fun part! But every experiment has to have certain parts: Constants: details within the experiment that stay the same for everything Control: the part of the experiment that is unchanged and nothing is added

Step 4: Analyze your Results This is the part where measurement becomes very important – you will want to use the metric system so you can share your results with other scientists… This is also the step in the Scientific Method where you see what actually happened… Ex. MAN….I walked out of class….I got written up…now I am in ISS for three days….this is not cool…..

Step 5: Form a Conclusion This is where you simply state what happened and what you learned…it’s your results that everyone can read and understand Ex. Okay…so…when I walk out of class, I get in trouble…hmm…what should I do next time….?

Practice Use this hypothesis to identify the variables: If I leave all the lights on all day, then my electric bill will be expensive IV: ______________________ DV: ______________________

If I brush my cat more, then there will be less fur on my furniture IV: ______________________ DV: ______________________

Now read the following experiment and identify the different parts Elizabeth wanted to test if temperature affected how fast milk goes bad and curdles. She left the same kind of milk in a room temperature closet, a fridge, and a oven that was turned on low heat. She then measured how rotten the milk was after 10 days. IV: ____________________________________ DV: ____________________________________ Constants: ______________________________ Control: ________________________________