Journal #2
 Locate
the following safety equipment
(tell me where they are in the classroom):





Fire extinguisher
Fire Blanket
Vent hood
Eye wash
Safety shower
Introduction to
the Scientific
Method
Today’s Learning Goal:
Today,
we will identify the steps
of the scientific method.
Video Clip
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7sS
uhQ1_24
The scientific method can be
stated several ways
 It
involves looking at the world around
you, coming up with an explanation for
what you observe, testing your
explanation and then either accepting
your explanation or rejecting the
explanation and trying to come up with a
better one.
Scientific Method Steps
1. Make an observation
Scientific Method Steps
2. Ask questions
 The scientific method starts when you ask a
question about something that you observe:
How, What, When, Who, Which, Why, or Where?
 And, in order for the scientific method to answer
the question it must be about something that
you can measure, preferably with a number.
Scientific Method Steps
3. Create a hypothesis
 A hypothesis is an educated guess about how
things work.
 Most of the time a hypothesis is written like this:
"If _____[I do this]_____, then _____[this]_____ will
happen." (Fill in the blanks with the appropriate
information from your own experiment.)
 Your hypothesis should be something that you
can actually test, what's called a testable
hypothesis. In other words, you need to be able
to measure both "what you do" and "what will
happen."
Scientific Method Steps
4. Conduct an experiment to the test the
hypothesis
 Your experiment tests whether your hypothesis
is true or false. It is important for your
experiment to be a fair test. You conduct a fair
test by making sure that you change only one
factor at a time while keeping all other
conditions the same.
 You should also repeat your experiments
several times to make sure that the first results
weren't just an accident.
Scientific Method Steps
5. Collect data
 While
performing you experiment,
collect your measurements and
analyze them to see if your
hypothesis is true or false.
Scientific Method Steps
6. Conclusion
 Write a conclusion summarizing the results of
your experiment.
 Scientists often find that their hypothesis was
false, and in such cases they will construct a
new hypothesis starting the entire process of
the scientific method over again. Even if they
find that their hypothesis was true, they may
want to test it again in a new way.
 The
independent variable is the one condition that
you change in an experiment
 The dependent variable is the variable that you
measure or observe. The dependent variable gets its
name because it is the factor that is dependent on
the state of the independent variable.
 A control group in a scientific experiment is a group
separated from the rest of the experiment where the
independent variable being tested cannot influence
the results. This isolates the independent variable's
effects on the experiment and can help rule out
alternate explanations of the experimental results.
Example 1:
Mr. Smith believes that a special 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 juice to drink while they work.
Group B is not given the special juice. After an
hour, Mr. Smith counts how many stacks of
papers each group has made. Group A made
1,587 stacks, Group B made 2,113 stacks.
What is the control group?
The control group of this example is Group B, because they are
not given the special juice. They are just there for explaining the
results.
What is the experimental group?
The experimental group of this example is Group A, because they
are given the special juice. This is the factor that you are
experimenting on.
What is the independent variable?
The special juice
What is the dependent variable?
Stacks of papers
Example 2:
A horticulturist (plant scientist) complains to the
city that a nearby residence is ruining his
sunflowers because of the detergent being used
to wash their cars. The soap runs into a stream
that goes near his flower beds. As an inquiring
scientist, you want to find out whether soap can
affect sunflower growth.
-Explain an experiment that could be
conducted to test this.
What is the control group?
The control group of this example is the flowers given no
soap.
What is the experimental group?
Flowers given soap
What is the independent variable?
The Soap
What is the dependent variable?
Flower growth
Scientific Method for M&Ms
 What
things might we want to know
about this bag of M&M’s?
 Can we create a hypothesis?
 How can we determine which hypothesis
is correct? What data will we collect?
 Groups
Today’s Assignment
The squares I gave you are in incorrect order
1. Cute the squares out
2. Arrange them in the correct order
3. Glue/tape them onto a separate piece of
paper
4. Turn into the tray when complete
Review
1.
2.
3.
What is the first step of the scientific
method?
How must a hypothesis be written?
When conducting an experiment, how
many factors should be changed?
What Is Today’s Learning Goal?
We
will identify the steps of the
scientific method.
Exit Ticket
 List
the steps of the Scientific Method