You have recently purchased an aquarium and fish You have recently purchased an aquarium and fish. You have had the aquarium set up for about two weeks and the water is very green. You have already changed the water once and it was clear for a day and then started turning green the next day. The filter seems to be working just fine. What could the problem be? 1. Write down all you know about water and what kind of water is green. Write down all you know about how to make water clear. (You may get information from other students) What do you think might be the problem? 4. Now, write what you propose to do to fix this problem.

The Scientific Method Step 1: Observing/Stating the Problem Most problems are described as problems because someone has noticed something is not right or something may not be understood. It is this simple act of making an observation and wondering why something is the way it is, or how something does what it does, or another related question.

The Scientific Method Step 2: Gather Information on the Problem It is always good to get some information on or learn something about the problem. Gather whatever information is available on the subject so that one can better understand the problem. Places to do find this information are books, journals, magazines, internet, human experts, and all other media sources.

The Scientific Method Step 3: Form a Hypothesis After information has been gathered and the problem is better understood, a hypothesis is formed. A hypothesis is an educated guess based on the known/gathered information. This step is one of the most important steps in the scientific method because this is what is going to be tested. The main point to the scientific method is to support or not support the hypothesis. The hypothesis is written in an If….. Then….. sentence.

The Scientific Method Step 4: Test the Hypothesis/perform experiments From the hypothesis and what is known, an experiment is formed. There are two main parts to the experiment. The Control and the Variable. First, The Control is the part of the experiment that is not changed. The Variable will have a change to it. For example, if one were testing to see how sunlight affects the growth of a plant they would have everything set up the same in both groups. In the control group nothing will change. In the variable group one thing may be different. That one thing in this case would be the amount of sunlight.

The Scientific Method Step 4: Test the Hypothesis/perform experiments Continued. There are two variables in an experiment. The independent and dependent variables. The independent variable is what is being done to the variable (amount of sunlight). The dependent variable is what happens to the variable as a result of the change (the plants that have less sun do not grow very well).

The Scientific Method Step 5: Record Observations and Data All observations are to be recorded with detail. Any change small or big needs to be noted. Also, The exact time and frequency the observation took place. It is important that all data is recorded in a measurable fashion. (The measurable data should be in System International (SI) units. The (SI) units are the units used in the metric System.) The data collected needs to be organized in charts and graphs that are easy to understand. This will help determine if the experiment supported or failed to support the hypothesis.

The Scientific Method Step 5.5 Repeat steps 4 & 5 It is important to repeat the experiment several times and record observation and data each time. The more times the results are the same the greater the certainty of your conclusion.

The Scientific Method Step 6: Draw a Conclusion Using the data collected and organized to interpret easily, try to see if it supported or failed to support your hypothesis. What you learned from the data collected may allow you to answer other related questions. Or other questions may have been raised that could lead to further investigation.