AND

THEN
INDEPENDENT
DEPENDENT

Define
Problem

• D.R. H.E.R.A.C
• D = Define problem
• R = Research
• H = Hypothesis
• E = Experiment
• R = Results
• A = Analyze
• C = Conclusion

There’s a problem, and you’re trying to solve it,
So you look into your science book to see,
If there’s any answer out there that could help you,
But it’s just not to be.
Now you need to use the scientific method,
You should research and then come up with a hunch,
Then experiment and analyze your data,
Make a conclusion and you’re gonna learn a bunch,
You’ll learn a bunch,
You’ll learn a bunch,
Because the scientific method solves your hunch!
Sing-A-Long Science The Sequel by Warren Phillps

• Acts as a baseline or frame of ____________
• Receives the __________ being tested
•
• Does _____ receive the variable being tested at all
• Considered to be a
“____________” situation
___________ the results of the experimental group to the control group •
•
• Everything else is the
_______ as the control group
Considered to be the
“_______________” situation
Compare the results back to the __________ group

• Acts as a baseline or frame reference
• Receives the __________ being tested variable
•
NOT variable being tested at all
• Everything else is the
_______ as the control group
• Considered to be a normal
•
Compares of the experimental group to the control group
• experimental situation
• control

• The ___ variable that is being tested, manipulated, or
___________
• The factor that is independent of the others
• The “___” part of your hypothesis
• On the __-axis of a graph
• The ____ you are measuring, collecting, and recording
• What is
____________ to the
Independent
Variable
• The “______” part of your hypothesis
• On the __-axis of a graph
• Many other
_______ affect experiments
• These variables should be kept the __________ for both groups so you are only testing 1 variable at a time
• This allows for a
_____ test

©
I
D
C
•
1 that is being tested, manipulated, or
___________
• The factor that is independent
If
•
• The “___” part of your hypothesis
X of a graph
• data are measuring, collecting, and recording
• What is responding to the
Independent
•
Variable then
• part of your hypothesis
On the __-axis of a graph
• Many other factors experiments
• These variables should be kept same for both groups so you are only testing 1 variable at a time
• This allows for a fair

http://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/controls.html

Smithers thinks that a special fruit juice will increase the productivity of workers. He creates two groups of 50 workers each and assigns each group the same task (in this case, they're supposed to staple a set of papers).
Group A is given the special fruit juice to drink while they work. Group B is not given the special fruit juice. After an hour, Smithers counts how many stacks of papers each group has made. Group A made 1,587 stacks, Group B made 2,113 stacks.

Ex) Identify the:
1. Control Group (C)
2. Independent Variable (IV)
3. Dependent Variable (DV)
4. What should Smithers' conclusion be?
5. How could this experiment be improved?

1. Control Group -- Group B
2. Independent Variable -- Special Fruit Juice
3. Dependent Variable -- Number of stacks of papers stapled
4. What should Smithers' conclusion be? It does not work
5. How could this experiment be improved?
Answers vary

Homer notices that his shower is covered in a strange green slime. His friend Barney tells him that coconut cleaner will get rid of the green slime. Homer decides to check this out by spraying half of the shower with coconut cleaner. He sprays the other half of the shower with water. After 3 days of
"treatment“, there is a significant change in the appearance of the green slime on the coconut cleaner side...it’s much cleaner…approximately 3X as clean!

Identify the:
6. Initial Observation
7. Control Group
8. Independent Variable
9. Dependent Variable
10. What should Homer's conclusion be?

6. Initial Observation? Slime on the shower
7. Control Group - Side sprayed with water
8. Independent Variable - Coco Cleaner
9. Dependent Variable - Appearance of Slime
10. What should Homer's conclusion be?
It works!

Bart believes that mice exposed to radio waves will become extra strong (maybe he's been reading too much Radioactive Man). He decides to perform this experiment by placing
10 mice near a radio for 5 hours. He compared these 10 mice to another 10 mice that had not been exposed. His test consisted of using a heavy piece of wood to block the mouse food.
He found that 8 out of 10 of the radio wave mice were able to push the block away. 7 out of 10 of the other mice were able to do the same.

11. Control Group
Identify the:
12. Independent Variable
13. Dependent Variable
14. What should Bart's conclusion be?
15. How could Bart's experiment be improved?

11. Control Group - Mice not radiowaved
12. Independent Variable – radio wave mice
13. Dependent Variable - Strength of mice
14. What should Bart's conclusion be?
Improves strength, maybe inconclusive
15. How could Bart's experiment be improved?
More mice, test group before and after treatment

Krusty was told that a certain itching powder is the newest best thing on the market… it even claims to cause 50% longer lasting itches. Interested in this product, he buys the itching powder and compares it to his usual product. One test subject (A) is sprinkled with the original itching powder, and another test subject (B) was sprinkled with the new experimental itching powder. Subject
A reported having itches for 30 minutes.
Subject B reported to have itches for 45 minutes.

Identify the:
16. Control Group
17. Independent Variable
18. Dependent Variable
19. Explain whether the data supports the advertisements claims about its product.

16. Control Group - Subject A
17. Independent Variable - powder
18. Dependent Variable - length of time of itchiness
19. Explain whether the data supports the advertisements claims about its product. - It does!

Lisa is working on a science project. Her task is to answer the question: "Does Rogooti
(which is a commercial hair product) affect the speed of hair growth". Her family is willing to volunteer for the experiment.

20. Describe how Lisa would perform this experiment. Identify the… a. control group b. independent variable c. dependent variable

20. Describe how Lisa would perform this experiment. Identify the… a. Control Group- hair without Rogooti b. Independent Variable- Rogooti c. Dependent Variable- Hair Growth
She could use two heads of hair, or the same head with half treated and the other untreated. She would need to make sure she kept everything else the same between the treated and untreated hair and then measure the hair growth over time.

SpongeBob and his Bikini Bottom pals have continued doing a little research to solve some problems. Read the description for each experiment and answer the questions.

Mr. Krabs created a secret ingredient for a breath mint that he thinks will “cure” the bad breath people get from eating crabby patties at the Krusty
Krab. He asked 100 customers with a history of bad breath to try his new breath mint. He had fifty customers (Group A) eat a breath mint after they finished eating a crabby patty. The other fifty
(Group B) also received a breath mint after they finished the sandwich, however, it was just a regular breath mint and did not have the secret ingredient.
Both groups were told that they were getting the breath mint that would cure their bad breath. Two hours after eating the crabby patties, thirty customers in Group A and ten customers in Group B reported having better breath than they normally had after eating crabby patties.

1. Which people are in the control group?
2. What is the independent variable?
3. What is the dependent variable?
4. What should Mr. Krabs’ conclusion be?
5. Why do you think 10 people in group B reported fresher breath?

Krusty Krab Breath Mints
1. Which people are in the control group?
The people who received the mint without the secret ingredient (Group B) would be the control group.
2. What is the independent variable?
Secret ingredient in the breath mint
3. What is the dependent variable?
Amount of breath odor (or bad breath)
4. What should Mr. Krabs’ conclusion be?
The breath mint with the secret ingredient appears to reduce the amount of breath odor more than half the time, but it is not 100% effective.
5. Why do you think 10 people in group B reported fresher breath?
This may be due to the placebo effect.

SpongeBob noticed that his favorite pants were not as clean as they used to be. His friend Sandy told him that he should try using Clean-O detergent, a new brand of laundry soap she found at Sail-Mart.
SpongeBob made sure to wash one pair of pants in plain water and another pair in water with the Clean-O detergent. After washing both pairs of pants a total of three times, the pants washed in the Clean-O detergent did not appear to be any cleaner than the pants washed in plain water.

6. What was the problem SpongeBob wanted to investigate?
7. What is the independent variable?
8. What is the dependent variable?
9. What should Sponge Bob’s conclusion be?

6. What was the problem?
SpongeBob’s pants were not clean.
7. What is the independent variable?
Laundry soap
8. What is the dependent variable?
Amount of dirt left on the pants
(or how clean the pants were)
9. What should Sponge Bob’s conclusion be?
Clean-O laundry soap does not appear to be effective in cleaning his pants.

Squidward loves playing his clarinet and believes it attracts more jellyfish than any other instrument he has played. In order to test his hypothesis, Squidward played a song on his clarinet for a total of 5 minutes and counted the number of jellyfish he saw in his front yard.
He played the song a total of 3 times on his clarinet and repeated the experiment using a flute and a guitar. He also recorded the number of jellyfish he observed when he was not playing an instrument. The results are shown in the chart.

8.6 12.3 7.3 12.3

10. What is the independent variable?
11. What is the dependent variable?
12. What should Squidward’s conclusion be?
13. Are the results reliable? Why or why not?

10. What is the independent variable? Instrument
11. What is the dependent variable? Number of jellyfish
12. What should Squidward’s conclusion be? The clarinet did seem to attract a large number of jellyfish, but the average number for the three trials also matched the average for the guitar. The flute attracted the least number of jellyfish, but the average for this category is still larger than the control. Music seems to attract jellyfish in greater numbers than when no music is played.
Squidward’s hypothesis that the clarinet attracts larger numbers of jellyfish than other instruments is not proven by this experiment alone.
13. Are the results reliable? Based on the limited amount of information provided, it is difficult to tell if Squidward’s results are reliable. The description did not tell how long each break was between trials. Did he leave enough time for the jellyfish to
“clear out” of the area? (NOTE: Accept other potential flaws that students can support.)

Patrick and SpongeBob love to blow bubbles!
Patrick found some Super Bubble Soap at Sail-
Mart. The ads claim that Super Bubble Soap will produce bubbles that are twice as big as bubbles made with regular bubble soap. Patrick and SpongeBob made up two samples of bubble solution. One sample was made with 5 oz. of
Super Bubble Soap and 5 oz. of water, while the other was made with the same amount of water and 5 oz. of regular bubble soap. Patrick and
SpongeBob used their favorite bubble wands to blow 10 different bubbles and did their best to measure the diameter of each one. The results are shown in the chart…

14. What did the Super Bubble ads claim?
15. What is the independent variable?
16. What is the dependent variable?
17. Look at the results in the chart.
a. Calculate the average diameter for each bubble solution.
Super Bubble = ___ cm
Regular Soap = ___ cm b. What should their conclusion be?
18. Are the results reliable? Why or why not?

14. What did the Super Bubble ads claim? The ads claimed that the Super Bubble solution would produce bubbles that were twice as large as those made with regular bubble soap.
15. What is the independent variable? Type of bubble solution
16. What is the dependent variable? Size (diameter) of the bubble
17. a. Calculate the average diameter for each.
Super Bubble = 15.1 cm Regular Soap = 11.5 cm b. What should their conclusion be? The Super Bubble solution did not seem to produce bubbles that were twice as large as those made with the regular soap.
Although the average size for the Super Bubble solution was larger than the average size for the regular soap, it was not “twice as large” as the ads claimed.
In fact, only two of the ten trials had results that would fit the ads claims.
18. Are the results reliable? Why or why not? The description does not say who blew the bubbles for each solution. There may be differences in bubble sizes due to the person blowing the bubble rather than the bubble solution. They might have considered having each person blow 5 bubbles with each solution.
(NOTE: Accept other potential flaws that students can support.)

• http://www.hopkinton.k12.ma.us/middle/ curriculum/units/scientificMethod/exa mple.htm
• http://aspire.cosmicray.org/labs/scientific_method/sci_met hod_main.html
• http://www.biologycorner.com/workshe ets/controls.html
• http://www.biologycorner.com/workshe ets/sci_method_design.html
• http://www.biologycorner.com/workshe ets/language.html