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The Scientific Method? What’s it all about?

Learn all about the scientific method, a logical process used to answer questions and solve problems. Explore the steps involved, from observation to conclusion, and understand how scientists design and conduct experiments to test their hypotheses.

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The Scientific Method? What’s it all about?

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  1. The Scientific Method? What’s it all about?

  2. What is the Scientific Method? • It’s a process which outlines a series of steps used to answer questions. • In other words, it’s a way to solve a problem.

  3. SCIENCE LET’S INVESTIGATE: The Scientific Method

  4. Think like a scientist... Scientists take time to think logically when they are investigating a question or problem. They break things down into many steps that make sense.

  5. Steps of the Scientific Method Observe FIRST. Make an OBSERVATION, ask a QUESTION or IDENTIFY a problem. Gather information and form a HYPOTHESIS. Create an EXPERIMENT to test your hypothesis. Collect DATA and OBSERVATIONS by doing the experiment. Draw a CONCLUSION. SHARE your findings.

  6. OBSERVE and ask questions Do plants need water to grow? All investigations start with a question ! Does exercise make your heart beat faster?

  7. What question could these children be investigating? What are they predicting will happen?

  8. I predict that... A HYPOTHESIS is the same thing as a prediction. It is an EDUCATED GUESS or what you think is going to happen in your experiment. Example: I think that the plant with the fertilizer is going to grow more than the others…..

  9. Because... You need to give a reason why your hypothesis is correct. Example: …..because fertilizer is the best type of plant food.

  10. What are these two finely dressed children investigating? Write an HYPOTHESIS that they might be testing?

  11. The next step scientists take is to create and conduct an experiment to test their experiment. • Includes two groups: A Control group and an Experimental group. Designing an experiment...

  12. How do I make it a fair test? Control Group is all the factors that are held constant. This is needed for comparison! Example: I will only change the “food source” of the plant. My control group will be the type of plant, the size of cup, the same amount of soil, water and sun.

  13. I will change... In every experiment, we change 1 thing, this is called a variable. Example: I will only change the kind of “food source” in my experiment to test which is better in helping plants grow. (one will have sugar, one will have fertilizer, one will have soda, one will have gatorade)

  14. Dependent Variable There are 2 Variables in an experiment!! Independent Variable The result. It’s what happened. What you measure. The response. Example: Plant Growth The factor you purposely change/manipulate. It’s the thing you are testing.

  15. D R Y M I X ependent esponding/ Result -axis ndependent anipulated -axis

  16. What are these children investigating? What do you think is their variable? How did they make it a fair test?

  17. After doing the experiment... Gathering information or data is very important. Write it down so it is readable and makes sense to other people who read it. A key to experiments is observing what happens and writing it down.

  18. What are the results of my experiment? After the experiment, you need to write in detail what happened in your experiment. Example: What happened? The plant growth was higher in the plant that had the fertilizer than in the plants that had sugar, soda and gatorade.

  19. How do I draw a conclusion? Your hypothesis does not have to be correct!! You need to look back at your HYPOTHESIS and see if you were correct! Example: Are your results what you predicted? Yes, I thought that the fertilizer would be the best for plant growth and the results of my experiment proved that this was true.

  20. Explain why your hypothesis was correct or not. You need to explain (give reasons why) your hypothesis was right or wrong. Example: The plant with the fertilizer grew 2 feet and the others either did not grow or only grew 6 inches, concluding the fertilizer was the best source for plant growth.

  21. Repeat, repeat, repeat... This is really what we call verification, or checking things out to make sure everything is valid and will happen again and again. Once a scientist completes an experiment, they often repeat it to see if they get the same findings and results.

  22. Make sure to share! Scientists can learn from each other and often use someone else’s experiences to help them with what they are studying or doing. Scientists share their experiments and findings with others.

  23. Theory vs. Hypothesis Theory- A well tested explanation that brings together many observations. It’s not a law and not absolute truth! Supported by lots of experimenting by lots of scientists. Hypothesis- A proposed scientific explanation for a set of observations.

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