Scientific Method

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Scientific Method
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Purpose

• What you want to find out
• A question
• Also called a Problem

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Research

• Background Information
• Found in
• Library
• On Line
• Text books

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Hypothesis

• An Educated Guess
• Must have background information to make this
  guess

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Experiment

• Test your hypothesis
• Includes a step by step procedure to test
  hypothesis.

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Example

• Do ants prefer Sprite or Dr. Pepper? Dr. Pepper
  has caffeine, so ants will probably prefer the
  Dr. Pepper to Sprite. To find out we can pour
  equal amounts of Sprite, Dr. Pepper, and water
  (5mL) equal distances from an ant pile (5 cm).
  Observe and count ants at each pile for one hour.
  After an hour 40 ants had gone to the Sprite, 28
  ants to the Dr. Pepper and 2 to the water. Ants
  prefer Sprite my hypothesis was wrong.

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Scientific Method so far.

• Problem Do ants prefer Sprite or Dr. Pepper?
• Research Caffeine in drinks
• Hypothesis Ants prefer Dr. Pepper
• Experiment Pour equal amounts of sprite and Dr.
  Pepper equal distances from ant pile.

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Experiments include

• Controlled experiment all but one variable
  stays the same. Allows comparisons
• Variables the items likely to change.

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Types of Variables

• Independent Variable
• (Manipulated Variable)
• The variable that you change in the experiment on
  purpose.
• (type of drink next to ants)

• Dependent Variable
• (Responding Variable)
• The item that you are looking for in the
  experiment. This would be your data.
• (How many ants went to each drink)

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Control Group

• This does not include the manipulated variable to
  use for comparison.
• Ex water in the ant experiment

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DATA (ANALYSIS)

• Written observations
• (usually in a chart)
• Put in Graph to analyze
• Line graph trends over time
• Bar graph comparisons
• Circle (pie) graph - percentages

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RULES FOR GRAPHING

• Must have a title
• Each axis must be labeled
• Manipulated variable on x-axis
• Responding variable on y-axis
• Numbers in consecutive order (start with 0)
• Make a key if needed

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Examples of a Graph
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CONCLUSION

• An answer to your problem (what you learned
  this must support your data)
• State whether your hypothesis was right
• What could have affected your results.

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REPEAT TO MAKE YOUR TEST RESULTS MORE ACCURATE