1. The Scientific Method Essential Questions:
What is the purpose of the Scientific Method?
What are the steps of the Scientific Method?
How can you apply the Scientific Method to everyday situations?

2. Scientific Method
Scientific Method – way in which scientists gather information and answer questions.
The goal of science is to investigate and understand the natural world, explain events, and use those explanations to make useful predictions.
There are generally 7 steps to the scientific method.
This is a good flow chart of the scientific method.
Note: There are many versions of the steps of the scientific method, but they are essentially all the same!

3. Stating the problem 2. Gathering information on the problem
1. Stating the problem is something that you want to find out.
Example: Why did 10 people get sick with E.coli at Saturday’s picnic?
2. Gathering information on the problem? You must first Observe and gather facts!
Observation: Everyone who got sick with E. coli ate the chicken, potato salad and/or ate ice cream within 72 hours.
Inference: What does this suggest?

4. Observation Versus Inference
There are two types of data scientists gather: quantitative and qualitative.
When scientists gather information, they begin with observations or the process of recording information in a careful or orderly way. This is called Quantitative data.
Scientists also use data to make inferences. This is a logical interpretation based upon prior knowledge or experiences. This is called Qualitative data.
Let’s start out easy and then test your skills with a few observation versus inference games!

5. Game 1: What do you see?

6. Game 2: Fossil Footprints Mystery! What is happening at Position 1?
Begin by reviewing the definitions of observation and inference. Then, project Position 1 of the Footprint Puzzle using an overhead projector or computer projector. Have students practice making observations. Have students critique whether their contributions are really observations, or whether they are inferences. Remember, observations use the senses to gather information and inferences use observations to draw conclusions.
observations
senses
inferences
   
Next, ask the students to infer about past events based on their observations using the limited evidence in Position 1. As more evidence becomes available, they may modify their inferences. Ask students: Can you predict the size of the organism based on the tracks? Were the tracks created at the same moment in time? How many organisms were involved? Can you reconstruct a series of events based on the footprint evidence alone?

7. What is happening at Position 2?
Now reveal Position 2 and permit students to make more observations. They will need to modify their earlier inferences based on the new evidence. Any explanation that is consistent with the evidence is acceptable. Encourage students to conjure up creative explanations. Ask clarifying questions: What direction did the organisms move in? Did the organisms change speed or direction? Was the land level or uneven? In all cases, encourage students to describe the reasoning behind their inferences.

8. What is happening at Position 3?
Show Position 3. An imaginative student should be able to propose multiple explanations based on the all evidence. Students typically infer that two animals met and fought, and that only one animal survived the encounter. It is also arguable that a mother picked up her baby. Perhaps the two animals drank from a water source, then one flew away and the other plodded off on foot. Propose the question: What other information would help you make a more informed prediction or inference about the actual events?

9. Your Turn! Examine the Following Statistics
Total Population: (1503 died)
Wealthy (132 died)
Middle Class (154 died)
Poor (533 died)
Other/Unknown (684 died)
What is an Observation of this data?

10. What is an Inference from this data?
Total Population: (1503 died)
Wealthy (132 died)
Middle Class (154 died)
Poor (533 died)
Other/Unknown (684 died)

11. Now Add These Statistics
94% Wealthy Women and Children Survived
81% Middle Class Women & Children Survived
47% Poor Women and Children Survived
87% Other/Unknown Women & Children Survived
What is another Observation of this data?

12. What is another Inference from this data?
94% Wealthy Women and Children Survived
81% Middle Class Women and Children Survived
47% Poor Women and Children Survived
87% Other/Unknown Women and Children Survived

13. Then Look at These Statistics
69% Wealthy Men Died
90% Middle Class Men Died
86% Poor Men Died
78% Other/Unknown Men Died
What is your third and final Observation from this data?
What is your third and final Inference from this data?

14. Conclusion: What was the most likely cause of death?
Take one to two minutes to think and/or chat with your neighbor on the cause of death for these people and record your response on your notes!

15. The Answer! Survivor Rates on the Titanic:
Passengers: Women & Children Men Total First Class 94% 31% 60% Second Class 81% 10% 44% Third Class 47% 14% 25% Crew 87% 22% 24%
Total Survivability: 31.6% How did your observations and inferences help you come to your conclusion? What other data would have been helpful before coming to your conclusion?

16. Forming a Hypothesis
Hypothesis – proposed solution or educated guess to the problem.
They must be proposed in such a way that they can be tested. (or testable.)
There can be multiple hypotheses or many solutions to a scientific problem!
Example: Remember the bad picnic?
1. The chicken was bad (infected with E.coli) and made people sick.
2. The potato salad was bad (infected with E.coli) and made people sick.
3. The ice cream was bad (infected with E.coli) and made people sick.
The Suspects!

17. 4. Performing experiments to test the Hypothesis
We must test the hypothesis to determine whether or not it is correct or explains what is going on in our problem.
Testing is done through experiments.
Example: Compare the items that made people sick by growing samples of bacteria (E.coli) on culture plates resistant to other types of pathogen growth using sterile techniques.
Why is it important to have specific media? 1 2 3 4 5

18. 4. Experiment: Controls
Controls – There are two types of controls in every experiment used as a basis of comparison.
Positive Control: Your anticipated outcome of the experiment. This control ensures that your experiment is working properly and/or there are not any outside factors influencing the outcome of your experiment.
Example: A pure sample of E.coli that made everyone sick from the picnic.
Outcome: A sample of E.coli will grow on this plate.
Negative Control: Contains no variables and should have no effect or outcome in your experiment. This control ensures that no contamination has occurred in your experiment.
Example: No sample of any food item added to the petri dish.
Outcome: Nothing should grow on this plate. 1
E.coli 2
nothing

19. 4. Experiment: Variables
In designing an experiment, only one variable is tested at a time with your positive and negative controls.
Variable – the factor being tested
Independent Variable – Factor you can manipulate
Dependent Variable – Factor that responds to the manipulation and can be measured.
Example: Samples of the three food items from the picnic. 3
Chicken 4
Potato salad 5
Ice cream

20. 5. Recording and Analyzing Data
A) Data are Recorded observations and measurements.
Data is usually shown in a table or chart.
B) Then data is made into a graph to show trends.
Makes information easier to see!
We’ll conduct a graphing experiment later…

21. Picnic Results
After a few days, you observe the following on the 5 petri dishes:
Plate 1: Growth
Plate 2: No Growth
Plate 3: Growth
Plate 4: No Growth
Plate 5: No Growth
Note: You can switch up “Growth” between plates 3, 4, and 5 for different classes.

22. Stating a conclusion 7. Repeating the experiment
6. Once you have looked at your data, you can draw conclusions.
Example: Which plate showed growth? What food was the culprit? What would you report based upon your outcome?
Other Outcomes/Conclusions:
What if nothing was wrong with the food at all? How would you revise your hypothesis and conduct another experiment?
What if there was no growth on plate 1?
What is there was growth on plate 2?
7. In order to ensure your data is accurate AND to that your hypothesis accurately explains what is scientifically going on, experiments will be constantly repeated.
Why is this important?

23. Let’s take a second look at the clip!
Let’s watch the clip again.
This time, record the steps of the scientific method in your notes.
We’ll stop after the clip and review.
What things were missing from this experiment?