SCIENTIFIC METHOD

SCIENTIFIC METHOD QUESTION/OBSERVE CONCLUSION HYPOTHESIS RESULTS/ANALYSIS EXPERIMENT

Let’s start with a question! • Picture this…You decide to take a walk outside on a hot, sunny day. You walk barefoot across your gray, cement driveway out to the blacktop. Once your feet hit the blacktop you jump back onto the cement because the blacktop is too hot! Both surfaces have been in the sun for the same amount of time…why is the blacktop hotter?

Now that we have asked a question and made some observations, let’s form a hypothesis. • In science class we will use a format for writing a hypothesis. The statement will say “If………then……….” To come up with this statement, we must first make a prediction. • Talk to the person next to you to predict why you think the blacktop was hotter than the cement.

Designing an Experiment • What is our hypothesis? • How will we test our hypothesis? • Talk with the person next to you again and brainstorm possible experiments that we could do to test our prediction/hypothesis.

After the Experiment • After we have performed the experiment, we will study/analyze the results and form a conclusion. • This conclusion will either support the hypothesis, or rule it out. • Either way, we will still learn something from the experiment! 

SCIENTIFIC METHOD