1. The Scientific Method
Unit 1

2. Objectives

3. What is the Scientific Method?
The Scientific Method is the steps
and principles that guide scientific
questioning and discovery.
The Scientific Method provides a
standard for scientific discovery.
Not all science follows the Scientific
Method

4. Questioning Step 1: Questioning
Develop a question that can be tested or investigated for better understanding.

5. Observation and Research
Step 2: Observation and Research
Observation – Using your senses to gather information about the world. Your senses are touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight. Tools, such as a ruler, can also be used to help in observation.
Research – Using resources to gain a better understanding of the world around you.

6. Step 3: Develop a hypothesis
Based on observation and, develop a hypothesis by predicting a possible outcome for the question that can be tested or investigated.

7. Experiment and Investigate
Step 4: Experiment and Investigate
Experiment – an organized procedure to study something under controlled
conditions with variables present
Investigate – to examine, study, or
inquire in an organized manner,
variables not present.

8. Collect and Analyze Data
Step 5: Collecting and Analyzing Data
How do scientists collect information?
Observing
Measuring
Types of Data
Quantitative – numeric, measurable data
Qualitative – descriptive data
Organizing Data
Graphing
Modeling

9. Drawing Conclusion and Inferences
Step 6: Drawing Conclusions and Inferences
When drawing a
conclusion, you are drawing
an inference from
collected data. Your
conclusion will accept or
reject your hypothesis.

10. Communicating Results
Step 7: Communicating Your Results
Communicating your results is important in a scientific community. Support your conclusion and be prepared to answer questions and admit experimental/investigational flaws.

11. Science Process Skills
Science Process Skills – the skills used in the process of science
Observation
Communication
Classification
Measurement
Inference
Prediction

12. Sources Used
step.nn.k12.va.us/science/6th_science/ppt/Scientific_Method.pp
newton.uor.edu/facultyfolder/tyler_nordgren/.../FYS_SciMethod.ppt