Scientific Method Vocabulary

Scientific Method  Research Question: You see something happen and you ask “why?”  Hypothesis: An “if…then” statement that describes the experiment; MUST include the independent variable and the dependent variable

Scientific Method  Independent Variable: the part of the experiment you choose to change  Dependent Variable: the part of the experiment that you measure or count; it’s the outcome

Scientific Method  Control: it’s what you compare the results of the experiment with; it’s often the first trial  Constants: only one part of the experiment may be changed, so everything else are the constants; the word constants means “unchanging”

Scientific Method  Repeated trials: performing many sets of the experiment REDUCES ERROR