Science and Problem Solving

What is Science? The knowledge obtained by observing the natural world in order to discover facts and to formulate laws and principles that can be verified or tested.

What is the scientific method? A step-by-step process for solving problems. Some problems are as simple as: Which fertilizer helps tomato plants grow tallest? Or some problems are as complex as: Which medical treatment will cure cancer?

What is the first step? The first step of the scientific method is determining and stating the question/problem. You must always state the problem in question form using a question mark (?) at the end of the statement.

Making Sure Your Question is Testable What is an opinion? Based on the personal thoughts and feelings of someone. How many students in Green pod like UT football? What is testable? Not based on personal thoughts and feelings. Based on facts that result in numerical data. How many students are in each 7th grade pod this year?

Look at the following scenarios Look at the following scenarios. An opinionated question has been stated. These type of questions are not testable using the scientific method. With your group, design a testable research question.

Which slide is Carson’s favorite at the park?

What flavor Dunkin Donut munchkin is the most popular?

Does Ms. Porter enjoy football?

What is the most popular cake topping?

Is this lady crazy?

Step 2: Collect Information After you state a testable question/problem, you must collect information that will help you with finding an answer to your question/problem. As you collect information, you must determine the controls and variables.

What is a control (constant)? A part of the experiment that stays the same. There may be more than one control in each experiment. Example: If you are testing which soil plants grow in best, then your controls could be the amount of sunlight and water given to each plant. Also, the type of pot the plants are growing in.

What are variables? Variables are the part of the experiment that changes. There are two types of variables: Independent variable Dependent variable There are only one of each in an experiment.

Independent Variable The variable that is intentionally changed by the scientist. Example: When testing soil, the scientist will change the types of soil he/she is using in the experiment. Types of soil is the independent variable.

Dependent Variable The variable that will change as a result of the independent variable. Example: When testing soil, the scientist will change the types of soil (independent) and the height the plants grow will change as a result of the different soils. Height of plants is the dependent variable.

Scenario #1 Mr. Krabs created a secret ingredient for a breath mint that he thinks will “cure” the bad breath people get from eating crabby patties at the Krusty Krab. He asked 100 customers with a history of bad breath to try his new breath mint. He had fifty customers (Group A) eat a breath mint after they finished eating a crabby patty. The other fifty (Group B) also received a breath mint after they finished the sandwich, however, it was just a regular breath mint and did not have the secret ingredient. Both groups were told that they were getting the breath mint that would cure their bad breath. Two hours after eating the crabby patties, thirty customers in Group A and ten customers in Group B reported having better breath than they normally had after eating crabby patties.

Scenario #2 SpongeBob noticed that his favorite pants were not as clean as they used to be. His friend Sandy told him that he should try using Clean-O detergent, a new brand of laundry soap she found at Sail-Mart. SpongeBob made sure to wash one pair of pants in plain water and another pair in water with the Clean-O detergent. After washing both pairs of pants a total of three times, the pants washed in the Clean-O detergent did not appear to be any cleaner than the pants washed in plain water.

Scenario #3 Sponge Bob notices that his pal Gary and his girlfriend are suffering from slimotosis, which occurs when the shell develops a nasty slime and gives off a horrible odor. His friend Patrick tells him that rubbing seaweed on the shell is the perfect cure, while Sandy says that drinking Dr. Kelp will be a better cure. Sponge Bob decides to test this cure by rubbing Gary with seaweed for 1 week and having his girlfriend drink Dr. Kelp for 1 week. After the week of treatment, Gary’s slime is gone, but not his girlfriend’s slime.

Scenario #4 Squidward loves playing his clarinet and believes it attracts more jellyfish than any other instrument he has played. In order to test his hypothesis, Squidward played a song on his clarinet for a total of 5 minutes and counted the number of jellyfish he saw in his front yard. He played the song a total of 3 times on his clarinet and repeated the experiment using a flute and a guitar. He also recorded the number of jellyfish he observed when he was not playing an instrument.

Step 3: Form a Hypothesis A hypothesis is an educated prediction or guess about the conclusion of the experiment. A hypothesis is always written in the following form: If I test ___(IV)___, then I think the ___your opinion___ will _____(DV)___.

#2 If I test different types of soda, then I think Brand Y will have the most sugar.

#3 If I test different heights for dropping a ball, then I think 20 feet will have the highest ball bounce.

#4 If I test different batteries, then I think Energy Star will last the longest.

#5 If I test different depths of water, then I think the deepest part will have the coldest temperatures.

Step 4: Testing Your Hypothesis

When you plan…. You must include: List all lab materials/tools you will use. Step-by-step procedure describing how the materials/tools with be used. The set-up of the experiment. The observations and measurements that will be made.

Step-by-Step Procedure You must be specific. The goal of a well-designed experiment is to allow anyone who reads it to understand the process you are using and to allow someone else to complete the experiment just by following your directions.

Peanut Butter Sandwich With your group, write a specific procedure for creating a peanut butter sandwich.

Step 6: Draw Conclusions

Writing a conclusion… Restate your hypothesis. Then, state whether the conclusion supports the hypothesis. *If it does not, that’s ok! Proving a hypothesis is wrong is just as helpful as supporting it. Clearly and thoroughly state the results of the experiment. Tie in the results with a conclusion sentence based upon what the experimenter was trying to discover.