The Scientific Method Teen Chef

Think about your morning routine Think about your morning routine. How do you know that an action you took would be effective? When you hit the button on the alarm, it turns off. When you put butter on warm toast, it melts. Over time, you made observations, suggested explanations, tested ideas, and critically reasoned. A concentrated refined application of intellectual processes (observation, experience, learning from others) is used to get through the day.

Small children learn almost everything because of their innate curiosity. Scientists work from a similar approach, but carefully document their logical approach.

1. Observation Gather information using your 5 senses

2. Defining the Problem Limit the problem investigated so it can be tested by an experiment that gives conclusive results.

3. Hypothesis Testable prediction (educated guess) that explains certain observations. Gives purpose and direction to the experiment.

4. Experiment A way to test a hypothesis in order to verify or disprove. A researcher must design a procedure that will demonstrate that the suspected cause and effect relationship is true or not. In Teen Chef many of our experiments will be making recipes a variety of ways.

Experiment Vocabulary: Variables: Factors that can change in an experiment. Independent variable — factor that you can change (time, temperature, etc.) Dependent variable — factor that change as result of the independent variable Data: Information gathered during an experiment.

Experiment Vocabulary cont.: Measurement: Precise, quantitative measurements using accurate instruments to make observations more reliable and make it possible for other to check and attempt to replicate.

5. Analysis Examination of something in detail in order to understand it better or draw conclusions from it. Patterns or trends may be revealed. Theory - Explanation based on a body of knowledge gained from many observations and supported by the results of many experiments.

6. Reporting Careful records of research findings, experimental design, observations, and the reasoning used to interpret them to allow others to learn and if desired, repeat the experiment.

Now It’s YOUR Turn… Tonight either: Watch someone cook – parent or video or TV show You cook

Let’s Review the Rubric Write 6 sentences relating the SM to the cooking observed or did: 1. Who was cooking 2. What was being cooked 3. Explain one of SM Steps observed (choose any step #1-6) AND underline the SM Step 4. What you learned from the SM step observed in sentence 3 5. Explain 1 different SM Step observed (choose any other step 1-6, different than sentence 3) AND underline the SM Step 6. What you learned from the SM step observed in sentence 5 DUE TOMORROW START OF CLASS

EXAMPLE 1. Last night I observed my Dad cooking dinner for our family. 2. He made cheesy chicken enchiladas with Spanish rice and beans. 3. While my Dad was cooking, I formed a hypothesis that the enchiladas would be nice and crispy because he was using a higher temperature. 4. While testing my hypothesis, I learned that the higher temperature did have an impact on the crispiness. 5. During the cooking experiment, I observed that one independent variable is the temperature. 6. Using the independent variable, I learned that my Dad likes to cook his enchiladas @ 400* because it heats the food more quickly than the suggested 375*