1. What is the scientific method?
Steps used to find an answer to a problem or question.
These steps allow other scientists to replicate (repeat) past experiments
Consists of 5 steps.

2. Step 1 Define your problem.
State the question/problem and make observations.
Ex: Will the student who doesn’t do homework do as well as the student who does?

3. Step 2 Form a hypothesis (educated guess)
It’s a possible explanation to the question in Step 1 that can be tested in an experiment.
Not every hypothesis is tested, just those that may be correct.

4. Forming a Hypothesis
Hypotheses are usually in the form of an IF-THEN statement. If I do X, then Y will happen.
Independent variable – the thing you are doing [X].
Dependent variable – the thing you will measure as a result [Y].

5. Example
Will the student who doesn’t do homework do as well as the students who does?
Hypothesis: If a student doesn’t do homework, they wont do as well as students who do.

6. Step 3 Perform your experiment.
The experiment should test your hypothesis.
Quantitative Vs. Qualitative??

7. Performing the Experiment
Control Group & Experimental Group – used to help “see” the results.
Ex: A student that doesn’t do homework (experimental) Vs. a student who does (control).
Constants- things kept the same between the experimental group and the control group.
Ex: amount of homework assigned to students.

8. Step 4
Analyze your Data.
Look for patterns in the data that determine whether the hypothesis is supported or rejected.
This is done by making graphs, charts, or tables

9. Example Student Amount of Homework Completed Grade Student A
15 Assigned F
Student B
15 Completed A

10. Step 5 Draw a conclusion based on the results of the experiment.
In the previous example, students that do not do homework will not do as well as students who do homework.

11. What if the hypothesis is wrong?
Remember: even if your hypothesis was wrong, your results are still valuable.

12. Review The five steps of the scientific method:
Define a question or problem.
Form a hypothesis.
Perform the experiment.
Analyze the data.
Draw a conclusion.