The Scientific Method

1. The Scientific Method

2. What is the very first step to the scientific method? • Observation!

3. Problem • Deciding what it is that you will be studying.

4. Hypothesis • Not a W.A.G (wild @$$ guess) • Should be an educated “guess” backed by research that is testable!

5. Experimental Group • The group that you will be testing on using a specific variable.

6. Control Group • Identical to the experimental group except that they lack the experimental variable.

7. Independent variable • The variable being adjusted by the experimenter. • Should only have 1!

8. Dependent variable • The thing that is being measured. • It is what responds to what the experimenter has adjusted.

9. Data • All the qualitative and quantitative measurements collected.

10. Theory • A hypothesis supported by many experiments. • Accepted as being correct but not proven.

11. Accuracy • How close the results are to the actual answer. Accurate

12. Precision • How close the results are to each other. Precise

13. Correlation • A mutual relation between two or more things • Example : there is a correlation between alcohol and domestic violence…you can’t say alcohol causes domestic violence.

14. Causation • A relationship in which one action or event is the direct consequence of another • Example: Streptococcus causes strep throat .

15. Null Hypothesis • The null hypothesis is a hypothesis which the researcher tries to disprove, reject or nullify. • The 'null' often refers to the common view of something, while the alternative hypothesis is what the researcher really thinks is the cause of a phenomenon.

16. Validity • Generally refers to the extent to which a concept, conclusion or measurement is well-founded and corresponds accurately to the real world.

17. Why is it important to repeat experiments? • To validate the results!

18. Labeling the dependent and independent variable… • X-axis: independent • Y-axis: dependent