Welcome to Science Lab!

Basic Experiment Steps of the Scientific Method

Whenever we do a science experiment, we follow certain steps to make sure that the experiment will be fair and that it will test what we want it to test. These basic steps are called the SCIENTIFIC METHOD.

For your reading enjoyment, here are the Basic Experiment Steps: 1
1111.1.1,

     1.  PURPOSE:
         Think of some idea that you want to test. It might be which soap
          cleans the best, which paper towel absorbs the most water,or
          which video game makes kids sit on the couch the longest.

     2.  HYPOTHESIS:
          "Hypothesis" is a fancy science word for making a "guess" or
          "prediction." Predict what the results of your experiment will be.
         (I think that the Zest will clean the best because it is blue.)

     3. PROCEDURE:
         This is a system of steps that will test your hypothesis. This is
         where you design an experiment to test your hypothesis. In the
         soap experiment we might use a few different brands to clean
         the same type of stain or dirt from our hands. Your procedure
         should give you results that you can observe and measure.

     4.  OBSERVATIONS:
          Make careful observations and record them in a graphical
          format, such as a chart or graph. Observations should be
          in some standard or understandable unit if possible. Instead
          of saying plant A was tall, you would list its exact height.

    5. CONCLUSION:
         Analyze your data and summarize your findings. At the end
         of your experiment, you try to figure out if your procedure
         proved anything. This process is called drawing conclusions.
         When we draw conclusions, we evaluate our experiment by
          asking questions such as:
         --Did the results support the hypothesis?
           (Was I right when I thought Zest would clean better?)
         --Were there any other factors which might have influenced
            the outcome of my experiment?
         --Would I get the same results if I did the experiment again?
         --Are there other ways that I could test my hypothesis?

****A Note About MULTIPLE TRIALS and VARIABLES

Multiple Trials:
When we do experiments, it's a good idea to do multiple trials, that is,
do the same experiment several times. When we do multiple trials of
the same experiment, we can make sure that our results are consistent
and not altered by random events. Multiple trials can be done at one
time. If we were testing a new fertilizer, we could test it on lots of
individual plants at the same time.

What About Variables?
Variables are things that we can change that have an effect on
an experiment.    You identify and control variables when you change
one factor that may affect the outcome of your experiment while
the other factors are kept constant.   Let me see if I can explain
this more clearly with a plant experiment. If we wanted to test the
effect of CrazyGro fertilizer on bean plants, we would take a bunch
of plants and put CrazyGro on half of them. The CrazyGro application
is the variable we purposely changed. All other variables (amount of
watering, location, pot size, seed size) would remain the same and we'd
call them constants or controls. Constants/control variables have to
stay the same for the experiment to be a fair and accurate test of
our hypothesis.

***Science Fair packets go into a LOT
     more detail.  These will be ready in
     October and packet request notes
     will go home at that time.

Welcome to Science Lab!

SCIENTIFIC METHOD

©2012 TeacherWeb, Inc.