The Scientific Method Walking Through the Process

Question Think of a question that you wonder about. Be sure that the question can be answered by conducting an experiment.

Question What flavor of chip will dissolve in your mouth the quickest among semi-sweet chocolate, white chocolate, butterscotch and peanut butter?

Validity Controls – Things that must stay constant, or the same Variable – What will be changing? What is being tested?

Validity-Controls Method of mouth movement Size of Chip Temperature of Chip Same clock/watch Same participants

Validity -Variable The rate at which the different chips dissolve in your mouth Semi-sweet Chocolate White Chocolate Peanut Butter Butterscotch

What Are You Measuring? In order to have a valid question, you must only measure ONE thing!

What Are You Measuring? The time it takes for each type of chip to dissolve in someone’s mouth is what is being measured. What unit will you use?

Hypothesis State a possible answer to your question. Do NOT use any pronouns. Do NOT use words such as “maybe”, “possibly”, “I think”, etc. State it in an “if, then” statement.

Hypothesis Because dark chocolate melts easily at temperatures higher than room temperature, the semi-sweet chocolate chip will dissolve in your mouth more quickly than the white chocolate, butterscotch, and peanut butter chips.

Materials In list form, write down everything you will need to conduct your experiment Be thorough and complete.

Materials 3 Chocolate chips 3 White chocolate chips 3 Peanut Butter chips 3 Butterscotch chips Watch/clock with second hand

Procedure List your procedure in a NUMBERED step-by- step format. Be sure you have only one command per step. Another person should be able to follow your procedure and reproduce your experiment exactly.

Procedure 1. Gather materials. 2. Place semi-sweet chip in mouth and start stopwatch. 3. Allow chip to dissolve. 4. Stop timing when chip is dissolved. 5. Record time in seconds in data table. 6. Repeat steps 2 – 5 with 2 more semi- sweet chocolate chips. 7. Repeat steps 2-6 with the the white chocolate chip, the butterscotch chip, and the peanut butter chip three times.

Data Table Chip flavorTrial oneTrial twoTrial threeAverage time in seconds Semi-sweet chips White chocolate chips Butterscotch chips Peanut butter chips

Graph of Results Time Seconds Semi- sweet White Chocolate Peanut Butter Butter- scotch

Conclusion Restate the question. Begin by restating the hypothesis. Restate the data collected during the experiment. Tell whether or not the hypothesis was correct. Describe any errors that did or could have occurred.

Conclusion What flavor of chip will dissolve in your mouth the quickest between semi-sweet chocolate, white chocolate, butterscotch and peanut butter? The semi- sweet chip will dissolve faster than the other chips. The semi-sweet chip dissolved in 35 seconds, the white chocolate chip in 19 seconds, the peanut butter chip in 42 seconds, and the butterscotch chip in 59 seconds. Therefore, the hypothesis was incorrect because the white chocolate chip dissolved the fastest.