1. Scientific Method
1)State your problem in the form of a question. Ex: Does eating chalk cure headaches?

2. Scientific inquiry begins through observations and inferences
Observations come through our senses
Inferences are assumptions based on prior experience

3. 2) Collect information about the problem (research).
Make observations
Use prior knowledge
Review previous research

4. 3) State your hypothesis
3) State your hypothesis. This is simply an answer to your question in step #1.
Eating chalk does cure headaches.

5. 4) Design Experiment: List Materials
Define control group vs experimental group
Define dependent, independent variables, and constants

6. The experimental group is the group that is actually being tested.
The people with the headaches who will be eating chalk.

7. The control group is your comparison group
The control group is your comparison group. It is the group that is not being experimented upon.
The people with headaches that do not eat any chalk.

8. A variable is anything that can effect the outcome of your experiment.
Amount of chalk, severity of the headache, age, time, etc.

9. The independent variable is the one variable you are actually testing.
The amount of chalk

10. The dependent variable is what changes in the experiment due to the independent variable. The headaches

11. A constant is any factor that remains the same during the experiment.

12. Data is information gained from observations
5) Data Gathering
Data is information gained from observations
Quantitative: Think quantity (how many, numerical)
Qualitative: Think quality (how did things seem, observations

13. 6) Data Analysis
Charts and graphs
Compare to hypothesis

14. 7) Conclusions Publish your results
You must state whether or not your hypothesis was right. If it wasn’t, explain!
*This experiment is pretend! Don’t eat chalk for any reason!!*

15. Ex: Based upon my experiment, chalk does seem to cure headaches
Ex: Based upon my experiment, chalk does seem to cure headaches. My hypothesis was correct.

16. Theory
A Hypothesis which has consistently been proven to be true.