1 / 31

Scientific Method

Scientific Method. Fact or Fiction?. Turtle eggs develop into males in cold temperatures and females in warmer temperatures Insect-eating bats can eat as many as 3000 insects in one night Pill-bugs have blue blood, do not urinate, and eat their own poop

paul
Download Presentation

Scientific Method

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Scientific Method

  2. Fact or Fiction? • Turtle eggs develop into males in cold temperatures and females in warmer temperatures • Insect-eating bats can eat as many as 3000 insects in one night • Pill-bugs have blue blood, do not urinate, and eat their own poop • Average garden snails have up to 14,175 teeth located on their tongue • The average American teenager eats about 825 kilograms (1818.81 lbs) of food each year

  3. Believe it or not, all of those statements are FACTS! • To gather knowledge about the natural world, scientists OBSERVE what happens around them • They then come up with ideas to EXPLAIN what they observed • Then, they perform EXPERIMENTS to test their explanations • This is “good science”!

  4. Tell Me More! • Science is a “process” (a VERB!) • Think about this question: “I have high cholesterol, what should I do?” • Take cholesterol lowering medication. • Consult your astrologer. • Pray to the god Baal and sacrifice a goat on Mount Fuji.

  5. The Scientific Method • A series of steps which are followed in order to logically solve a problem. • YOU follow the Scientific Method ALL THE TIME!

  6. Steps in the Scientific Method • Observation • Problem • Hypothesis • Experiment • Data • Data Collection • Data Analysis • Conclusion • Repeat

  7. YOU Follow the Steps of the Scientific Method EVERY DAY! • You make Observations • See a Problem to Solve • Make a Hypothesis • Experiment • Collect Data and Analyze the Results • You make a Conclusion • Repeat or Retry if necessary

  8. Everyday Science

  9. Everyday Science

  10. Everyday Science

  11. Everyday Science

  12. How are YOU going to Remember the Steps in the Scientific Method??? • Observe • Problem • Hypothesis • Experiment • Data • Data Collection • Data Analysis • Conclusion • Repeat • Oh! • Please • Have • Extra • Delicious • Candy • Ready

  13. Observe • Observations are gathered through your senses • A scientist (and you!) notices (observes) something in the natural world

  14. Problem • What is the Problem you are trying to solve?

  15. Hypothesis • A suggested solution for (reason for) the problem or observation • An Educated Guess • Must be testable • Predicts an outcome

  16. Experiment • An Experiment is a procedure set up to test the hypothesis

  17. Valid Experiments • Any “factor” (thing that can influence) which is able to be changed in an experiment is called a Variable • Make sure only ONE variable is changed in an experiment!!!

  18. Valid Experiments • A good (valid) science experiment tests a single variable that can be measured against a control. • A Control is the same experiment, leaving out the variable. • It is unchanged and used for comparison

  19. Controlled Experiments • Controlled experiments are experiments where all factorsare the same between two test subjects, except for the single variable you changed

  20. Control Groups • Control Group receives the same attention as the test groups, however, it will not receive the “treatment” (variable) as the other groups and is used for comparison

  21. Independent Variable • The independent variable is sometimes called the manipulated variable • It is the one factor that is changed (manipulated) in the experiment

  22. Dependent Variable • The dependent variable depends on what is being changed in the experiment • It is the outcome (result) that is measured

  23. Scientific Experiments Follow Rules • A valid experiment changes only one factor andobserves or measureswhat happens • This is the data that is collected and analyzed!

  24. What is the Purpose of a Control? • Controls are NOT being tested • Controls are used for COMPARISON • Controls sometimes use PLACEBOs

  25. What is a Placebo? • PLACEBOs are fake “treatments” given to the control group to ensure that the control group doesn’t know what’s going on…  • It is harmless and has no effect • A “sugar pill”

  26. Data • Results of the experiment must be recorded and organized • Can be organized into charts, tables, or graphs

  27. Conclusion • A Conclusion is the answer to the hypothesis based on the data obtained from the experiment • Does the data support or not support your hypothesis? • If it rejects it… Try Again!

  28. Repeat/Retest In order to verify the results and make sure they are valid, an experiment must be reproducible - (able to be repeated / retested and get the same results)

  29. One more thing… Valid experiments are repeated several times and get the same results, use a large sample group and are peer reviewed.

  30. Theories vs. Laws • What does the word “Theory” mean? “A well tested / well supported / well accepted guess” (Webster’s Dictionary) • What is the difference between theory and law? “Evolution is a theory, it is not a law.” • When a theory has been tested many times and is accepted as fact, it becomes a Law.

  31. So?????? • A successful, well tested hypothesis eventually becomes a Scientific Theory. • A successful, well tested, well supported, well accepted Theory becomes a Scientific Law.

More Related