Vocabulary
An educated, testable guess
Hypothesis
a fake treatment, an inactive substance like sugar, distilled water, or saline solution -- can sometimes improve a patient's condition simply because the person has the expectation that it will be helpful.
Placebo effect
Peter loves music. He believes that he does his homework better and faster when he listens to music. His parents say that music is distracting when studying. What is the problem?
Does listening to music make your homework better?
The answer to your question. A summary of what you have learned from the experiment
Conclusion
This is the question you want to answer
Problem
Peter loves music. He believes that he does his homework better and faster when he listens to music. His parents say that music is distracting when studying. Using this scenario, what are the following statements an example of?
If you listen to music while you study then your homework will be better quality. OR If you listen to music while you study then your homework will be worse quality
Hypothesis
This is what you need to do to test your hypothesis. You may need to conduct these more than once to test the result
Experiments
A series of steps that scientists use to answer questions and solve problems
Scientific method
Peter loves music. He believes that he does his homework better and faster when he listens to music. His parents say that music is distracting when studying.
What would the independent variable be?
Music playing
All conditions are kept normal. This is used as a comparison
Control Group
When you record data from an experiment, this is the one that is being measured
Dependent Variable
Peter loves music. He believes that he does his homework better and faster when he listens to music. His parents say that music is distracting when studying.
What would the dependent variable be?
Grade on Peter's homework
This is what is changed or controlled during a science experiment
Independent variable
This is usually organized into charts, tables and drawings
Data
Peter loves music. He believes that he does his homework better and faster when he listens to music. His parents say that music is distracting when studying.
What would the control variable be?
No music playing