The Scientific Method

1. The Scientific Method • What is science? • What is the method scientists use to answer scientific questions?

2. The Scientific Method • What is science? • Way of learning about the natural world • A way to answer questions & solve problems • A process used to investigate what is happening around you; provides possible answers

3. What is the Method that Scientists follow to answer questions? Scientific Method

4. Scientific Method • Identify a Question • Research the Topic • Form a Hypothesis • Perform an Experiment • Collect Data • Analyze Data • Form a Conclusion

5. Scientists Ask a Question • Does life or did life ever exist on mars? • For example: • You might ask which gasoline is the most efficient • Is or was there ever life on Mars? • Why doesn’t the light work? • Why are all the fish dead? • Answering one question may lead to many others

6. Gather Information • You can find information by going to the library and reading books or magazines, by using the internet, or talking to other educated people about the question Evaluate your sources of information!!!! • Goal is to get background information on what you are researching and use it to help you form your hypothesis

7. Form your Hypothesis • A hypothesis is a possible answer to a question • Must be testable • If… then… statement. • An educated guess

8. Example Hypothesis • If sunlight effects the rate of plant growth, then the more exposure to the sun the higher the plants will grow. • If bacteria grow in higher temperatures, then an increase in temperature will lead to an increase in bacterial growth. *** manipulated variable is the IF, responding variable is the THEN***

9. Test the Hypothesis • Run an experiment • You need to decide what your VARIABLES are! • Scientists tried to recreate and produce globules of minerals that looked like the shapes in the Martian meteorite

10. What are Variables? • Factors that can change in an experiment • 3 Types of Variables • Independent (Manipulated) Variable • Dependent (Responding) Variable • Controlled Variable

11. Independent Variable • The variable that can be changed during an experiment • The variable that the scientists chooses to change • The variable that may cause a change in the dependent variable

12. Dependent Variable • The factor that is being measured in an experiment • The variable that may change because of the independent

13. Controlled Variable • Variable that stays the same during an experiment • Variable that is “controlled” by the scientist • Variable that is not allowed to change

14. Analyzing Results • As experiments and tests are preformed scientists collect information, or data, that must be analyzed • How can some data be organized? • Include: • Measurements • Look for patterns and relations found in data and on graphs • Microscope photographs • Chemical studies • Formation of graphs to see patterns in data • Etc.

15. Draw a Conclusion • Scientists attempt to answer the original question • State whether or not the hypothesis was supported (it is never “right” or “wrong”) • Scientists decide what the results of their tests and observations mean & pose further research questions • Sometimes the original hypothesis is not supported by the data, other times it is. • If it is not: scientists have to form a new hypothesis and restart the process • If it is: …..

16. Theory • If the hypothesis is proven it becomes a theory. • In science a theory is an idea that has been tested and retested and can explain a large set of observations. • Scientists report to scientific journals or provide presentations to other scientists

17. Repeated Trials • To make sure results are valid • The more trials conducted, the more likely the results are reliable • To make sure a “fluke” is not considered the true result