1. Everything you need to know
to successfully use
THE SCIENTIFIC
METHOD

2. First of all – WHY bother?
The SM helps you organize your work.
The SM helps make sure that you have a FAIR test.
The SM helps you be able to repeat your work.
The SM helps you be sure to not forget anything.
The SM helps OTHERS be able to repeat your work.

3. So where to begin – the RESEARCH QUESTION
The RESEARCH QUESTION defines what you are doing –
and what is being tested.
What is the effect of ….. On …..?
It is written:
(a question ALWAYS ends in a ?)
Now you know what you are testing and what you are measuring because . . .

4. What is the effect of the INDEPENDENT VARIABLE
The research question actually says:
What is the effect of the INDEPENDENT VARIABLE
on the DEPENDENT VARIABLE?
The Independent Variable (IV) is what you are testing – what YOU are changing in the test.
The Dependent Variable (DV) is what you are MEASURING – (in numbers or observation)

5. A hypothesis is worded:
A good scientist always THINKS about what he or she is doing, so the next element is the HYPOTHESIS – an educated guess.
You don’t need to do a lot of research to come up with your educated guess – you have to THINK about what you are doing and what might happen when you change the independent variable.
A hypothesis is worded:
I think IF……… THEN ……… because ………

6. to make it easier to read them.
So now that you’ve given that some thought – it’s time to make sure that you CAN do the experiment.
If you were baking chocolate chip cookies you would make sure that you have enough of each ingredient BEFORE you began the cookies – no point in getting started and not having enough chocolate chips!!
Now you determine your list of MATERIALS –and you must be VERY SPECIFIC – tell us EXACTLY what you need to do this experiment.
Your materials are written in list form
to make it easier to read them.

7. The CONTROL is what you compare your results to.
You also want to be sure that you understand what you are finding out – you need a CONTROL to be sure of what your experiment proves.
The CONTROL is what you compare your results to.
If you want to know what is the effect of different
exercises (IV) on heart rate (DV) your control is the
heart rate BEFORE you exercise. Think about 2 people exercising and each one raising their heart rate to 150 beats per minute. If one person’s heart rate STARTED at 100 that means that their exercise raised their heart rate 50 beats per minute. If another one started at 145 beats per minute their exercise only raised their heart rate 5 beats per minute. That’s a big difference.
Which exercise had the most effect on the heart rates - By comparing to the control you can tell.

8. you can be sure that your test is fair.
When performing an experiment you want to make sure that you have a FAIR and ACCURATE test.
By keeping everything but the
Independent Variable CONSTANT
you can be sure that your test is fair.
If you are testing the effect of different exercises you would want to make sure that you are testing the same age or sex of people, that they are in the same ‘shape’, that they are in the same environment, that they are wearing the same clothes and that the experiments are performed the SAME WAY.
You want to make sure that the control is clearly met before you do more exercises – or else your test is not fair.

9. Once you have thought through ALL of those first steps:1.
Research Question
Hypothesis 2.
Independent and Dependent Variables
Control 3.
Constants
Materials 4.
You can now decide HOW you will test and measure – and write out everything in your PROCEDURE. 5.
Procedures are written in list form – with numbers to help you follow the steps.
BE SPECIFIC – someone else must be able to repeat your experiment EXACTLY by using your procedure. 6.

10. Now perform your test – and MEASURE your results.
And, organize and record your results in a DATA TABLE
Data Tables have a TITLE – the same as your experiment!!!
They have HEADINGS and UNITS that show what you learned.

11. Let’s look at a sample DATA TABLE:
(Your hypothesis was that jumping jacks will raise the heart rate more than other exercises.)
The effect of different exercises on heart rate.
(The title can be a sentence.)
Exercise
Resting heart rate – beats per minute
Heart rate after exercise – beats per minute
CHANGE in heart rate – beats per minute
Jumping jacks
120
165 45
1 mile jog
115 50
50 sit-ups
130 15

12. Data Tables are nice, but GRAPHS can SHOW your results in an easier to read way. Now you take your data and present it in a graph.
Graphs need the same title as your Data Table. The type of graph you use depends on what you measured – for example, a line graph shows change over time, a bar graph shows final results.

13. Your conclusion is written with 2 parts:
Now that you have tested, measured, compared, and presented your data – WHAT DO YOU DO?
This is the time when you DRAW A CONCLUSION – you look at your results and try to determine WHAT DID YOU FIND OUT?
Your conclusion is written with 2 parts:
1. WHAT DID I LEARN?
2. HOW DOES THIS COMPARE TO MY HYPOTHESIS?
You may also write about what you would do differently
if you did the experiment again, and what others should
know about doing the experiment.

14. If you have followed the elements of the SCIENTIFIC METHOD you should have a well thought-out, well planned and executed experiment whose data is well presented for easy analysis. Your experiment should have been fair – and your results trustworthy.
Research Question
Hypothesis
Control and constants
Independent + Dependent Variables
Materials
Procedure
Data Table + Graph
Conclusion