Experiments
Parts of an experiment that stay the same throughout
constants
A teacher wanted to know if having soothing music playing during a test would help her students focus better and score higher.
- She had class #1 take a test with no music playing in the back round.
- Class #2 had soothing music playing while they did the same test.
- Class #3 had distracting sounds playing in the back round while they did the same test.
Which class would be the control group?
Class #1
Fred wondered which grocery bags were stronger, paper or plastic. He thought plastic bags would be stronger.
He set up an experiment with 2 plastic bags and 2 paper bags from the grocery store. 5 pound weights were added to each bag until the bag ripped.
What is his question?
Are plastic grocery bags or paper bags stronger?
Shari wondered if the color of the t-shirt she wore would change how warm or cool she felt on a summer day.
She put a thermometer inside each of 4 empty ice cream buckets. She laid a white shirt over bucket #1, a gray shirt over bucket #2, and a black shirt over bucket #3. She didn't put a shirt on bucket #4.
She put all buckets in the sun and recorded the temperatures in each bucket every 30 minutes for 2 hours.
What is her question?
Will the color of shirt change the temperature on a hot summer day?
This step is what people are trying to find out while doing an experiment.
question or problem
the items necessary to complete the experiment
materials
A teacher wanted to know if having soothing music playing during a test would help her students focus better and score higher.
- She had class #1 take a test with no music playing in the back round.
- Class #2 had soothing music playing while they did the same test.
- Class #3 had distracting sounds playing in the back round while they did the same test.
Name the constant in the scenario?
All classes took the same test.
Fred wondered which grocery bags were stronger, paper or plastic. He thought plastic bags would be stronger.
He set up an experiment with 2 plastic bags and 2 paper bags from the grocery store. 5 pound weights were added to each bag until the bag ripped.
What is his hypothesis?
He thinks plastic bags are stronger.
Shari wondered if the color of the t-shirt she wore would change how warm or cool she felt on a summer day.
She put a thermometer inside each of 4 empty ice cream buckets. She laid a white shirt over bucket #1, a gray shirt over bucket #2, and a black shirt over bucket #3. She didn't put a shirt on bucket #4.
She put all buckets in the sun and recorded the temperatures in each bucket every 30 minutes for 2 hours.
What would you call bucket #4 in the experiment?
the control
This step is done at the end explaining what happened in the experiment.
conclusion
step by step instructions on how to carry out the experiment
procedure
A teacher wanted to know if having soothing music playing during a test would help her students focus better and score higher.
- She had class #1 take a test with no music playing in the back round.
- Class #2 had soothing music playing while they did the same test.
- Class #3 had distracting sounds playing in the back round while they did the same test.
What would be the independent variable?
the music or sounds playing while classes are testing
Fred wondered which grocery bags were stronger, paper or plastic. He thought plastic bags would be stronger.
He set up an experiment with 2 plastic bags and 2 paper bags from the grocery store. 5 pound weights were added to each bag until the bag ripped.
What is the independent variable?
the type of grocery bag
Shari wondered if the color of the t-shirt she wore would change how warm or cool she felt on a summer day.
She put a thermometer inside each of 4 empty ice cream buckets. She laid a white shirt over bucket #1, a gray shirt over bucket #2, and a black shirt over bucket #3. She didn't put a shirt on bucket #4.
She put all buckets in the sun and recorded the temperatures in each bucket every 30 minutes for 2 hours.
What would you call the buckets #1, #2, and #3?
the experimental group
This step involves looking at the information collected during the experiment.
analyzing data
data collected that is in number form
quantitative data
A teacher wanted to know if having soothing music playing during a test would help her students focus better and score higher.
- She had class #1 take a test with no music playing in the back round.
- Class #2 had soothing music playing while they did the same test.
- Class #3 had distracting sounds playing in the back round while they did the same test.
Which classes are in the experimental group?
Class #2 and #3
Fred wondered which grocery bags were stronger, paper or plastic. He thought plastic bags would be stronger.
He set up an experiment with 2 plastic bags and 2 paper bags from the grocery store. 5 pound weights were added to each bag until the bag ripped.
What is the dependent variable?
amount of weight
Shari wondered if the color of the t-shirt she wore would change how warm or cool she felt on a summer day.
She put a thermometer inside each of 4 empty ice cream buckets. She laid a white shirt over bucket #1, a gray shirt over bucket #2, and a black shirt over bucket #3. She didn't put a shirt on bucket #4.
She put all buckets in the sun and recorded the temperatures in each bucket every 30 minutes for 2 hours.
What would be the independent variable?
the color of t-shirt
This step involves trying to guess what will happen in the experiment.
hypothesis
data collected that is in word form
qualitative data
A teacher wanted to know if having soothing music playing during a test would help her students focus better and score higher.
- She had class #1 take a test with no music playing in the back round.
- Class #2 had soothing music playing while they did the same test.
- Class #3 had distracting sounds playing in the back round while they did the same test.
What would be the dependent variable?
the scores on the tests
Fred wondered which grocery bags were stronger, paper or plastic. He thought plastic bags would be stronger.
He set up an experiment with 2 plastic bags and 2 paper bags from the grocery store. 5 pound weights were added to each bag until the bag ripped.
Is the data qualitative or quantitative?
quantitative
Shari wondered if the color of the t-shirt she wore would change how warm or cool she felt on a summer day.
She put a thermometer inside each of 4 empty ice cream buckets. She laid a white shirt over bucket #1, a gray shirt over bucket #2, and a black shirt over bucket #3. She didn't put a shirt on bucket #4.
She put all buckets in the sun and recorded the temperatures in each bucket every 30 minutes for 2 hours.
What would be the dependent variable?
the temperature in the buckets
This step is what we are going to do at the science fair.
share results with others