Scientific Method
A series of steps designed to help you solve problems and answer questions
A) scientific method
B) experiment
C) hypothesis
D) observation
A) scientific method
any factor, trait, or condition that can exist in differing amounts or types
Variables
What is the 1st step of the scientific method?
Make an Observation
The information (evidence) gathered from observations and experimentation is called
Data
Scientists are the only individuals who use the scientific method True or False
False - WE ALL USE IT
What is the last step of the scientific method?
Conclude/Report
What is a hypothesis?
An educated guess or prediction of what you think the outcome will be
What 2 words should always be in your hypothesis statement?
If, Then
"I want to see how plants grow".
F.
There is no hypothesis, data, or anything to observe. It's just research.
What type of data is Descriptive or Physical Data
Qualitative
unchanged, used as the comparison in an experiment
Control
statement that answers the question/ statement of your understanding of the results
Claim
Gathering information by using your senses.
Observation
A graph that shows data over time
line graph
A graph that shows percentages/parts of a whole
circle graph or pie graph
Data, details, and facts that support your claim
Evidence
graph for comparing data collected by counting
bar graph
the variable you manipulate, control, or vary in an experimental study to explore its effects
A. | Dependent |
B. | Independent |
C. | Control |
D. | Uncontrolled |
B- Independent
T/F: This could be a great example for a scientific method question:
"I would like to research why prisoners who are released into the community often re-commit crimes and re-enter into the prison system."
F.
While research is conducted and we can retrieve and record data for this, what are we doing with this information? Where is the question/observation and hypothesis?
Making sense of the data, looking for patterns, finding trends falls within with step of the process?
Analyze
A scientist conducted an experiment to determine how the amount of salt in a body of water affects the plants that can live in the water. In this experiment the independent variable is
A) the types of plants
B) the amount of salt in the water
C) Neither
the amount of salt in the water
What are the steps to the scientific method?
Observation
Question
Research
Hypothesize
Experiment
Analyze
Conclude
what changes as a result of the independent variable manipulation in experiments (what we measure)
dependent variable.
Different preservatives were tried in foods to determine which best restricted the growth of molds. What is the dependent variable?
Growth of Mold
T/F. Is this a great question for a scientific experiment?
"I would like to determine if animals might get healthier based on changes to diet."
T.
This is a great observation, we can hypothesize that a better diet will result in better health, thicker fur, better heart-rates, etc. We can retrieve data and record it consistently over the course of days/weeks/months. We're covering all of our scientific method bases on this.