The Scientific Method


Pixabay

Pixabay

Essential Question

What is the scientific method?

Targets

1. What is the scientific method?

2. Why do scientists use its steps?

3. How do we use the steps in everyday life?

The Scientific Method

Science is a process. It is a way of finding out information and organizing it so that you can use it in the future. You can follow steps to solve problems to which you do not know the answer.  

  • Step 1:  Ask a good question about the problem you want to solve. 

    • Ex. Will a golf ball, tennis ball, or bowling ball form a deeper crater when dropped in sand?

  • Step 2: Make an educated guess educated guess as to what the answer to the question might be. This is called a hypothesis. 

    Ex. I think the bowling ball will make a deeper crater because it has a greater mass.

  • Step 3: Design an ordered investigation to test (prove/disprove) your hypothesis.

    An experiment is designed so that you can observe or measure if changes to one thing cause something else to vary in a repeatable way. The things that might change in an experiment are called variables.

  • Step 4:  Control variables. There is only one variable (an independent variable) that the scientist purposely changes during the investigation to see if it has an effect. Experimenters do not change more than one variable because it is too hard to determine what variable is causing the effects they observe.

    • Ex. The independent variable is the mass of the ball.

    Dependent variables (there can be more than one) are the effects or things observed. Dependent variables change usually because of the independent variable.

    Ex. The dependent variable is the depth of the crater since the depth depends on the mass of the ball.

    Controlled variables (there can be more than one) do not change throughout the experiment to make the tests valid. These variables could affect the outcome and create mixed or confusing results if the experimenter does not keep them the same for each test.

    Ex. The controlled variable is the height of the drop.

  • Step 5: Record observations.

    Watch the video
    for how to make good observations by noticing details.

  • Step 6: Interpret your results. Do the results support your hypothesis?  

  • Draw conclusions. Was the hypothesis supported or disproved by the results you found?  

View this video