1. THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

2. STEP 1: Ask a Question Must be a testable question.
Avoid opinionated words like “ better” when asking a question.
The question should allow for completely objective results.

3. Step 2: Gather Background Knowledge
This is not where you write down EVERYTHING that you know on a subject.
Only write down pieces of information that will help us make a prediction to the answer for the question we are trying to solve.
Often research will be done to complete this step.

4. Step 3: Hypothesis
Predict an answer to the question using an “If, then” statement.
The typical format is “ If ( I do this as my independent variable), then ( this will happen to my dependent variable)”

5. Step 4: Create and perform an experiment
This step can look very different from one experiment to the next.
It includes: Making a procedure, identifying variables, creating blank data tables

6. Step 5: Analyze data and make a conclusion
Based off of your data, determine if the results were reliable.
If they were reliable, make a conclusion on whether or not your hypothesis was correct.
It is possible that your results will be inconclusive and you will have to redesign an experiment at this point.

7. Step 6: Communicate Results
Becomes the most important step for high level scientists.
Must be able to organize your findings into a professional manner.
Ways to communicate include a lab report, a poster presentation, a magazine article, and many more.