Scientific Method Review

 The scientific method is used by scientists to solve problems  It is organized and reproducible (can be repeated by other scientists)  The steps are in a certain order, but if more questions are generated from the experiment it can cycle back to an earlier step and continue Scientific Method: Basics

State the Problem  State the problem: What are you trying to solve? What is the issue being investigated?  This should be in the form of a question

Research  Background research is then done to learn more about the topic  Research should help you decide what you think will happen in the experiment

Hypothesis  A educated guess based on what you know  The research you did helps you to decide what the outcome of your experiment might be

Test  These are the steps of your experiment- how you actually test your hypothesis  List materials and procedure  Create and fill in data tables

Analysis  Create graphs (visual representations) of your data  ALL EXPERIMENTS SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST ONE GRAPH

Circle Graph  Show percentages of a whole

Bar Graph  Compares categories

Line Graph  Shows direct ratio between two variables  Most commonly used to show change over time

 The analysis section also explains what the graph MEANS.  What does the graph show?  What happened in the experiment?  How do you explain data that doesn’t seem to fit the graph? Analysis

Conclusion  Explains whether your hypothesis was right or wrong, and how you know that  Explains possible reasons for errors, as well as things that could be improved next time

Multiple Trials  The more trials you have, the more accurate your experiment will be  Each experimental change (i.e. type of paper for paper airplanes) needs to be tested multiple times

Control Group  Every experiment needs a control group- a group of test subjects that you do not change, to compare to your experimental group(s)  Ex: a plant that gets just plain water when you’re testing how salt water affects plants