1. Research and the Scientific Method

2. 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!

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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.)

9. 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)

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. Presentation Tips Effective Presentation tips found here
Poster Presentation tips found here

18. 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

19. Frayer Model – An Example