1. Science Question of the Day Do you think you will like Science class? Why or why not?

2. Scientific Method A blueprint for experiment success

3. Let’s make an experiment! Take a look at these two objects. If I were to drop them, which do you think would land first? Why? How can we determine the answer to our question? Let’s come up with a plan!

4. Our Plan Step One: Identify the Problem/Ask a Question Step Two: Make a Guess (hypothesis) Step Three: Perform Experiment Step Four: Make Observations Step Five: Analyze Data Step Six: Draw Conclusions

5. Science Question of the Day What are you looking forward to this year in Science?

6. What is the scientific method? It is a simple method scientists use to conduct an investigation. It is a way to ask & answer scientific questions by asking questions & conducting experiments.

7. Step One: Problem/Question Ask a question about something observed. –Why? –How? –What? Question to be solved. Think of what you already know about the problem.

8. Step Two: Hypothesis Educated guess about how things work. Prediction Use If, then statements –If ____ [I do this], then _____ [this will happen] Example: “If I put a spider on Ms. Dilsaver’s desk, then she will scream.” True story…

9. Step Three: Experiment Test your hypothesis. Is it accepted (right) or rejected (wrong) ? In order for results to be valid, conduct several tests.

10. Let’s change the objects! Many times when we experiment, we like to change the objects we are using. What was our original question? What was our hypothesis? Think back to our book and paper. What could we change about our objects to see if they will change in speed? What is your new hypothesis?

11. Let’s change the objects! Each group will come up with two changes in objects and see if it affects the speed of each object Record your results! Let’s experiment!

12. Science Question of the Day Do you think Science is an important subject? Why or why not?

13. Step Four: Make Observations When making observations, we have to use all of our senses to discover new things. Let’s try an experiment… –Each table will have something to observe –Each table will test it with a different sense –Let’s put our observations together and see if we can determine what it is we observed

14. The Five Senses What did it smell like? What did it taste like? What did it feel like? What did it sound like? What did it look like?

15. What are some others ways we can test this object?

16. Making Observations Think about our drop experiment again. What do you know about the objects in our experiment? How can you describe these objects using your five senses? Are all of these observations important to the hypothesis?

17. Record Observations When making observations, it is important to write down what you see, hear, smell, feel, and taste (when appropriate) during an experiment. You can use this information later to analyze your data and draw conclusions. Graphs, tables, charts, and other graphics are a great way to organize your information.

18. Record Observations Let’s record our observations from the drop experiment. Take a look at your tables. We will fill in our information and record what happened in those tests. This may look complicated now, but we will go through it together.

19. Science Question of the Day What careers are you interested in that use Science?

20. Step Five: Analyze Data You will always conduct your experiment more than once. Many times you will change your objects being tested during a lab. You must analyze your results and determine why the experiment turned out the way it did. Yes, we will use math!

21. Step Six: Draw Conclusions Summary of your experiment. After your experiment, analyze your data to see if your hypothesis was accepted (correct), right) or rejected (wrong, invalid). If hypothesis is rejected, give possible reasons for the difference between your hypothesis and the actual results. Why did it turn out the way it did?

22. Blast Off! You are now ready to perform your own experiment using the scientific method! Each group will be given a problem (Step One), and you must design your own experiment to use the scientific method. Good luck scientists!