Research and the Scientific Method

What comes to mind when you hear the word “research”? Here’s what I think of: Internet (Google and other search engines) Encyclopedias Using the Library Experiments Reporting results Reading (textbooks, articles, etc.) Learning something new!

A definition Research is the investigation of a topic in order to gain knowledge and understanding Research is about asking “Why?” and then searching for an answer to that question. “ Millions of people saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why.” – Bernard Baruch

How do people conduct research? Research can take a number of different forms: What have you researched in the past? Here’s what research looks like in a couple different fields Historians study primary sources (newspapers, letters, photos, artifacts) to recreate past events. Applied Mathematicians use mathematical concepts to explain real world occurrences (example: using mathematics to predict the weather) Literary critics/historians study the lives and cultures of authors to gain perspective about the piece of literature Scientists conduct experiments to gain knowledge of the universe Our focus today is on how to conduct experiments using the Scientific Method

What is the Scientific Method? The Scientific Method is a step by step procedure used to conduct experiments The steps to this method are: Identify a Problem Gather background knowledge / make observations Formulate a Hypothesis Conduct and Experiment Collect and Analyze data Form a conclusion Share your results

1. Identify a Problem How do we come up with a problem? There’s a few possible ways Things that fill a need (ex. Can we make cell phone batteries last longer?) An idea or topic you want to investigate further (ex. Why are pitchers in MLB getting injured at record rates?) The solution of a previous problem created a new one. (ex. The antibiotic cured the patient’s cough, but now she is running a fever. Why is this happening?) Notice that all of these examples are stated in the form of a question. THIS IS KEY! Find out about good problems to research and poor problems to research here

1. Identify a Problem A Good Problem to study is: Stated in the form of a question Asks who, what, when, where, why, or how about the situation Is open-ended (result is not obvious) A Poor Problem to study: Has an obvious answer Is a statement of fact (ex. My phone’s battery does not last long) Does not ask a question

2. Background Research Before diving into your problem, you want to gather some background information. Things to look for include Has anyone researched this topic before? What were their results? Are there any safety concerns I need to worry about? What should my experiment focus on? (ex. When searching for a reason as to why my car will not start, I’m not going to check the tire pressure.)

Where should I get my information? High Quality Sources Poor Sources Local libraries (ask the librarian for help) Textbooks Encyclopedias (be careful of outdated versions) The internet (online encyclopedias, research articles, educational websites) Wikipedia (use the sources at the bottom of the Wikipedia page) Social Media (facebook, twitter) Opinion Articles in newspapers/magazines Websites without citation information Out of date sources (books on computers from 1940)

3. Formulate a Hypothesis What is a hypothesis? An educated guess of the outcome of your experiment based on your background knowledge of the topic. A hypothesis has the form “If I (do this action) , then (this result) will happen.” Think of the variables involved and single out the one variable you want to test Since a hypothesis is a guess, there is no wrong answer. A hypothesis is what you think. A hypothesis should be stated in simple terms Make sure your hypothesis is something you can test/ conduct an experiment for

3. Formulate a Hypothesis Examples of Hypothesis Non-examples of Hypothesis If I increase the air pressure in my tires, then I will get better gas mileage. If I do not water my plant for a week, then the plant will die. If I listen to hip hop music, my heart rate will increase. Aliens are real! If I put more mentos into a larger bottle of soda, then there will be a bigger jet of soda. Christopher Columbus discovered Northern America

4. Conduct an Experiment Now comes the fun part! Here we design and perform an experiment to test our hypothesis Some tips for conducting a high quality experiment: Keep it simple Only change one variable at a time Have a control group to compare with Make the experiment repeatable so others can verify your results Learn more about independent and dependent variables here Find out what a control group is here

5. Collect and Analyze Data During and after your experiment, you want to collect data/results so that you can draw conclusions It’s possible that you may need to rework your experiment if the results are inconsistent Summarize results using graphs, diagrams, tables, and pictures (Computer programs can help with this) Compare your results with previous experiments done by others and check that your results make sense For example, if you are measuring the speed of a car, you should never see speeds of 600 miles per hour

6. Form a Conclusion What conclusions can you draw from the data you collected? Was your hypothesis correct? What effect did altering the variable have on the results? Were there results that you did not expect? What were they? Your conclusion should answer the question you asked in step 1 Is there any work that could be done in the future to improve results? Were there any errors in your experimental setup? How can you fix them

Share your results What do you do with your results, graphs, tables, etc? SHARE THEM!!! You want to share your results so other people can learn from your work. What would have happened if the Wright brothers didn’t share their ideas on the construction of the airplane? How do I share my results Compile results into a poster presentation Make a PowerPoint presentation (like this one!) Write a few paragraphs explaining: The problem Your Hypothesis Your Experiment Your Results

Prepare for the Next Visit! In the next visit, we’ll be experimenting with wind turbines, find out a little about wind turbines by watching the video found here

Presentation Tips Effective Presentation tips found here Poster Presentation tips found here

FRAYER MODEL The Frayer Model is a graphic organizer that helps us to study our vocabulary In the Frayer Model you Put the word you are defining in the center bubble Put the definition of the word in the upper left Put some facts/characteristics about the word in the upper right Put examples of the word in the bottom left Put non-examples of the word in the bottom right

Frayer Model – An Example