1. Scientific Method

2. What is your Objective? THE PROBLEM
Curiosity????????????????
Observation is a key element here!!!

3. RESEARCH
Gather Information
Get some Background about the topic

4. THE HYPOTHESIS What is a HYPOTHESIS?
They can never be completely proven…..but one single experiment can disprove it.
IT IS AN EDUCATED GUESS!! A POSSIBLE EXPLANATION FOR THE OBSERVED SET OF FACTS in the form of a statement.

5. Time to Experiment!!! Plan the design of your Experiment.
Consider the following………

6. Is it a Controlled Experiment or Field Experiment??
Both Types will have Variables that need to be looked at.
Independent Variable
Dependent Variable
Control group
Constants

7. DEPENDENT VARIABLE (Responding Variable)
The One You Measure as a result of the changing Independent variable (the data)
GROWTH (CM)

8. INDEPENDENT VARIABLE (Manipulated Variable)
The one you will vary to see how it may affect the dependent variable
Amount of Fertilizer (ml)

9. To do a Fair Test (Controlled Experiment) and Obtain a Valid Conclusion you need to………
KEEP ALL VARIABLES CONSTANT, EXCEPT FOR THE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE.
Examples: amount of sunlight, species of plant, amount of water

10. Example: Identify the control, independent and dependent variables
Students of different ages were given the same jigsaw puzzle to put together. They were timed to see how long it took to finish the puzzle.

11. Independent:
Ages of the students
Different ages were tested by the scientist
Dependent:
The time it to put the puzzle together
The time was observed and measured by the scientist
Control:
Same puzzle
All of the participants were tested with the same puzzle.
It would not have been a fair test if some had an easy 30 piece puzzle and some had a harder 500 piece puzzle.

12. OTHER FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN EXPERIMENTING…….
How many individuals will you test?
How many trials?
What outside environmental factors do you need to keep constant?
Safety precautions.

13. Conduct the Experiment
A Experimental Group will be the group with the Independent Variable:
In this example, the plants receiving the fertilizer.
A Control Group will be the group without the Independent Variable
In this example, the plants receiving water only
A control group is for comparison.

14. GATHERING DATA Make a data table Label the sections of your table.
# of Days
Height of First Plant
Height of Second Plant 1
5 cm
3cm 2
8cm
7 cm 3
16cm
12 cm
Make a data table
Label the sections of your table.
Always put in the correct units given or being used

15. RESULTS Always Title graph and label the X and Y axis.
What are the Independent and Dependent Variables in this experiment?

16. Accept or Reject your Hypothesis (Meaning: was your hypothesis supported?)
What were the sources of error?
What patterns did you observe?
WHAT WOULD YOU PUT IN YOUR CONCLUSION?

17. NOW WHAT????
REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT!!!!!

18. What else do you have to add to the Scientific Method to make it a Lab Report???
The Parts of a Lab Report are:
Title
Hypothesis
Problem (Question to test)
Materials
Procedure (Methods used)
Data
Results (Graph)
Discussion and Conclusions