Scientific InquiryScientific Inquiry The Scientific Method

Analyzing observations to solve problems

The Problem: Your computer gets an error message

You know the problem

You ask friends, look on the internet about how others fixed the problem

You hypothesize how to fix it

You determine the materials you will need

You take steps in a given order to fix it

You try to fix one area (one variable at a time)

It is fixed…yea! What happens if it didn’t work??

It doesn’t work, you reformulate a different hypothesis and start all over again

How do you fix it?

This is the Scientific Method

Now let’s put it into steps and describe each in

detail

Steps of the Scientific Method

1. Observe a problem Something has gone wrong Someone is sick Something has a mutation There is an increase in red tides Something blew up

Steps of the Scientific Method

2. Research the problemDo not recreate the wheelLook at the internet scientific journalsprevious experiments

Steps of the Scientific Method

3. Formulate a hypothesis This is an educated guess It is educated because you researched

the problem prior to developing the hypothesis

A hypothesis is not necessarily correct, many times they must be modified

Steps of the Scientific Method

4. Design an experiment Design an experiment to test your

hypothesis You must have a control You must test only one variable at a

time

Steps of the Scientific Method

5. Recording and Analyzing Results Data must be recorded in data tables Raw data must be included in the lab

findings Data must be manipulated graphically to

see if a relationship exists Original data can be reorganized into

different data tables

What is the difference between Quantitative and Qualitative?

Steps of the Scientific Method

6. Draw a conclusionFormulate a scientific theory on the data gathered in the experimentThere are no scientific facts, only theoriesScience changes with time

Pasteur’s Experiment