1. The Scientific Method a series of steps that is used to answer a question or solve a problem

2. Step I - ____________________________________ Ask a question or state your purpose Where do questions come from? _________________________________________ from observations of the world around you. The purpose of your experiment is to try and find an answer to your question Why is the sky blue? Where do mosquitoes go in the winter? What dogfood does my dog like the best? Can people tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi?

3. Example: The purpose of this experiment is to find out whether caffeine affects response time.

4. Step II – ____________________________ Find out information on your topic. What is already known about your problem? What do you already know about your topic? Background Research

5. What are some places to go to find this information? ________________, ________________, ________________, ________________ internet library museums encyclopediaask an expert zoo

6. Example: What do you know already about what affects reaction time? ________________________________________

7. Step III – ____________________ A hypothesis is an _________________that explains your observation or answers your question. A hypothesis must be testable. Make a hypothesis Hypotheses are written in an “If….then…because…” format. educated guess

8. Example: If _______________________________________________ then _____________________________________________ _________________________________________________ because __________________________________________ __________________________________________________ I give people different amounts of caffeine I think that people with no caffeine will have the quickest response time while caffeine wakes you up, it also makes you less focused.

9. What is an example of an untestable hypothesis? _____________________________________________________________

10. Step IV – ___________________________ Experimental Design controlled experiments variables Scientists design _____________________ to test their hypotheses. A controlled experiment tests only one thing or factor at a time A scientist then measures the effect of that one factor Many factors could affect the outcome of the experiment but only one is tested at a time. All of these factors are called __________

11. _________________: the factor that is changed by the scientist. There is only one per experiment. _________________: the factor that is measured by the scientist during the experiment. There can be more than one dependent variable per experiment. _________________: the factor(s) that must not change during your experiment. There is usually more than one factor that needs to be controlled in an experiment. There are three different types of variables independent variable dependent variable controlled variable(s)

12. So, what are the variables in my experiment? independent variable: __________________ dependent variable(s): _________________ controlled variable(s):__________________ amount of caffeine response time type of test, time of day, where tested

13. Materials: ______________ ______________ After you have identified the variables in your experiment, you need to list the Materials you will need. Be specific!

14. A Procedure: is written as a _______, not as a paragraph. provides complete, step-by-step instructions. Be specific! does not use personal pronouns such as ___________ has at least two groups in the experiment: the ____________ group: the factor being tested is not applied to this group the ____________ group(s): the factor being tested is applied to this group; sometimes the factor is applied in different amounts, so there is more than one group list I, you or we control experimental

15. Procedure : 1.___________________________________________________ 2. ___________________________________________________ 3. ___________________________________________________ 4. ___________________________________________________ 5. ___________________________________________________ 6. ___________________________________________________ 7. ___________________________________________________ 8. ___________________________________________________ 9. ___________________________________________________ 10. __________________________________________________

16. Step V – ____________________ Make a _______________ to collect your data. Write down any observations or measurements in your chart. When you are done your experiment, make a ________of your data. What are the different types of graphs you can use to represent data? _____________,_____________,_____________ Results line graphbar graphpie chart Table or chart graph

17. Step VI – _______________________ There are several parts to the conclusion. 1st: Restate your purpose and hypothesis. You may abbreviate your hypothesis. Example: _____________________________________ Conclusions The purpose of this lab was to see how caffeine affects response time.I thought people with no caffeine would respond the fastest.

18. 2nd: Decide whether your results supported your hypothesis. Give supporting data. Example: _____________________________________ My hypothesis was not supported. People who drank one cup of coffee had the fastest response times. The average response time for this group was 5.4 seconds, 2.1 seconds faster than any other group

19. 3rd: Include the significance of your results. Example: __________________________________ My results suggest that caffeine can improve response time. However, people that drank more than one cup did not do as well so too much caffeine can hurt your response time.

20. 4th: What would you do differently if you could do this experiment over again? Why would you choose to do this? Example : Next time I am going to test whether response time is affected by the time of day. __________________________________ I want to see whether people react more quickly in the morning, in the afternoon or in the evening. This could be important for scheduling sporting events.