Scientific Method•A planned approach to solving a problem

Make Observations and form a hypothesis

Test Hypothesis/Perform Experiment

Define/Identify the Problem

Organize and Analyze Data

New Experiment

Do Experiment and Observations Support

Hypothesis?

No

Draw Conclusion

Communicate Results

Yes

Faulty Experiment?

Problem

•A well-defined question

Observation

Anything you see, hear,

taste, touch, or smell

(using your senses)

Inference•Implying a conclusion based on

observations

Hypothesis

•An educated

guess

Experiment

•A test of the hypothesis

Procedure

•The step by step plan for the experiment

Variable•Anything that changes during the experiment

•2 Types: Independent & Dependent

Variable = Size of the Ball

Independent Variable• The variable that YOU change in the experiment

50 mL water 100 mL water 200 mL water

Dependent Variable• The variable that

responds to the independent variable

• What changes because YOU changed something

50 mL 100 mL 200 mL

Height of Plant=(affects)

Control/Constant• The factors that are kept or stay the same

in the experiment

Same amount of

soil

Same amount of

light

Same size/color/type of

flower

Collect & Analyze Data

•Information collected from the experiment

•Usually displayed in the form of a chart, table, or graph

Conclusion• Forming an

answer based on the interpretation and analysis of data

Classify• To sort

objects and/or organisms into categories

Model•A structure that visually represents real events or objects

Limitation•Models cannot

show us everything

about what they represent