Scientific Method The process of science in every day life

1. The Broken Phone  You woke up to find that your cell phone is not working.  What do you do?!?

Scientific Method  The scientific method is a series of steps taken to investigate issues and discover possible solutions.

6 Steps of the scientific method:  Question  Research  Hypothesis  Experiment  Data  Conclusion

Situation  Observation: obtaining information by using the senses.  This plant seem to be healthy, but it’s the same size as it was last year.  What is the initial observation that is leading to questioning?  What questions pop into your head?

1. Question  What should our question be?  Will this plant grow bigger if I use a better, more expensive dirt?

2. Research  What type of research should we do?  What does a soil contain that makes a plant grow?  What types of soils are there?  What makes one better than the other?

3. Hypothesis  A hypothesis is a proposed explanation or an educated guess.  Found in “If… then… “form.  Take 15 seconds and write down a possible hypothesis.

*Vocabulary*  What is a Variable?  A variable is a factor that is of interest.  Person or group of people  Materials, objects or items  Non-material things like  Age or height  Minutes or days  Miles or liters

*Vocabulary* Independent Variable  Variable that is being tested  Cause  Action  Before Dependent Variable  Variable that is measured at the end  Effect  Reaction  After Identify the Independent and dependent variables in your hypothesis.

*Vocabulary* Experimental Group  Group or subject that is being tested Control Group  Group or subject that the experimental group is being compared to Identify the experimental and control groups in your experiment

*Vocabulary*  Control Variable(s) are variables that must stay the same between the experimental group and the control group.  Same amount of dirt  Same amount of water  Same type and size of plant  Same amount of sunlight  Same pot size… Identify the control variables in our experiment.

Before we start!  What materials do we need?  2 Identical Plants  Water  Sunlight  Old dirt  Expensive dirt  Pencil & Paper

4. Experiment Experimental Group  Small house fern in a small pot  Regular dirt  100 mL of water/wk  Some sunlight Control Group  Small house fern in a pot  New expensive dirt  50 mL of water/wk  Full sunlight

4. Experiment Experimental Group  Small house fern in a pot  New Expensive dirt  100 mL of water/wk  Full sunlight Control Group  Small house fern in a pot  Regular old dirt  100 mL of water/wk  Full sunlight

5. Data  After 5 weeks, this is what we see: Left – regular dirt; Right – expensive dirt.

*Vocabulary*  What is ‘Validity?’  Being logically and factually sound and acceptable.

6. Conclusion  Look back at your hypothesis. Is it valid?  What did you observe?  Was your hypothesis correct?  Why or Why not?

A Good Conclusion Has  Confirmed or Unsupported hypothesis  Restate some important facts/definitions  State all observations  State why these observations happened using facts, definitions, key terms

How to present data:  There are three ways to present your data:  Pie graph  Line graph  Bar graph

PIE GRAPH

LINE GRAPH: change vs. time

BAR GRAPH  Category vs Value