High School Module: Scientific Method Alternative Learning System

Scientific Method
Mark Anthony M. Cadorna LPT
Department of Education
Division of Cauayan City

What is inside?

 Objectives of this Module| Page 01

 Guidelines to Students| Page 01
 Theoretical Framework| Page 02
 Performance Evaluation Tool| Page 03
 Concept on Scientific Method | Page 05
 Learning Activities and Assessment| Page 10
 List of References | Pages 17

This workbook is exclusively for the use of Dep.Ed Cauayan only. No parts of this
worksheet may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, mimeographing, or
by any information and retrieval system without written permission from the
author.

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High School Module: Scientific Method Alternative Learning System

Objectives of this workbook

1. Arrive at an experiential knowledge and understanding of the principles and

connect it to the theories discussed.
2. See the authentic scenario on the actual setting and give realizations/reflection to
what was observed.
3. Acquire a basic knowledge to augment their understanding of the principles of
Scientific Method teaching.

Guidelines for the Students

These sets of guidelines are suggested to help students in the successful conduct
of their study and to augment their knowledge in the concept of scientific method. This
module shall address some institutional peculiarities that are not covered in this guideline.

1. The learners are required to accomplish successfully all the activities in this
workbook.
2. The learners shall demonstrate personal qualities that reflect a good image of a
student. These qualities include courtesy, respect, honesty, diligence, open-
mindedness, critical thinking and other while completing this workbook.
3. The students enrolled on this subject are required to prepare a portfolio. The
teacher will device rubrics and can be discussed to the learners as part of the
orientation so they would know what criteria will be used and how their portfolio
will be assessed.

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High School Module: Scientific Method Alternative Learning System

Theoretical Framework

To strengthen the foundation of this workbook, this manuscript made use of the
Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle shown below that guides the flow of the process that
students/ learners should undergo. The theory presents the four elements which are:
concrete experiences, observation and reflection, formation of abstract concept and
testing in new concept.

1. Concrete Experience (CE).This

stage of the learning cycle
emphasizes personal involvement
with people in everyday situations. In
this stage, the learner would tend to
rely more on feelings than on a
systematic approach to problems
and situations. In a learning
situation, the learner relies on the
ability to be open-minded and
adaptable to change.

2. Reflective Observation (RO). In

this stage of the learning cycle,
people understand ideas and situations from different points of view. In a learning
situation the learner would rely on patience, objectivity, and careful judgment but
would not necessarily take any action. The learner would rely on their own thoughts
and feelings in forming opinions.

3. Abstract Conceptualization (AC). In this stage, learning involves using theories,

logic and ideas, rather than feelings, to understand problems or situations.
Typically, the learner relies on systematic planning and develops theories and
ideas to solve problems.

4. Active Experimentation (AE). Learning in this stage takes an active form -

experimenting with changing situations. The learner would take a practical
approach and be concerned with what really works, as opposed to simply watching
a situation.

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High School Module: Scientific Method Alternative Learning System

Performance Evaluation Tool

Title: SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Tasks Exemplary Superior Satisfactory Unsatisfactory

4 3 2 1
Observation/ All tasks were All or nearly Nearly all Fewer than half
documentation done with all tasks tasks were of tasks were
outstanding were done done with done; most
quality; works with high acceptable objectives met
exceeds quality quality but with poor
expectations quality
Analysis Questions were Questions Questions Questions were
answered were were not answered;
completely; in answered answered grammar and
depth answers; completely; completely; spelling
thorough clear vague related unsatisfactory
grounded on connection to the acceptable
theories with theories;
theories, grammar and
exemplary spelling are
grammar superior
and spelling
Reflection Reflection Reflection Reflection Reflection
statements are statements statements statements are
profound and are clear but are shallow, unclear and
clear supported not clearly supported by shallow and are
by experiences supported experiences not supported
from the episode by from the by experiences
experiences episode from the
from the episode
episode
Portfolio Portfolio is Portfolio is Portfolio is Portfolio has
complete, clear, complete, complete, many lacking
well organized clear, well supporting components; is
and all organized documents unorganized
supporting and most are organized and unclear.
documents are supporting but is lacking
located in documents

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High School Module: Scientific Method Alternative Learning System

sections clearly are available

designated in logical
and clearly
marked
locations.
Submission Before delaine On the A day after Two days or
deadline the deadline more after the
deadline
Sub Totals
Over-all Score Rating base on transmutation

Signature of Teacher over Printed Name

Date Signed: __________________

Transmutation of Score to Grade/ Rating

Score Grade
20 99
18-19 96
17 93
16 90
15 87
14 84
12-13 81
11 78
10 75
8-9 72
7 below 71 and below

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High School Module: Scientific Method Alternative Learning System

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
The scientific method is a process for experimentation that is used to explore
observations and answer questions. Does this mean all scientists follow exactly this
process? No. Some areas of science can be more easily tested than others. For example,
scientists studying how stars change as they age or how dinosaurs digested their food
cannot fast-forward a star's life by a million years or run medical exams on feeding
dinosaurs to test their hypotheses. When direct experimentation is not possible, scientists
modify the scientific method. In fact, there are probably as many versions of the scientific
method as there are scientists! But even when modified, the goal remains the same: to
discover cause and effect relationships by asking questions, carefully gathering and
examining the evidence, and seeing if all the available information can be combined in to
a logical answer.

Even though we show the scientific method as a series of steps, keep in mind that new
information or thinking might cause a scientist to back up and repeat steps at any point
during the process. A process like the scientific method that involves such backing up
and repeating is called an iterative process.

Whether you are doing a science fair project, a classroom science activity, independent
research, or any other hands-on science inquiry understanding the steps of the scientific
method will help you focus your scientific question and work through your observations
and data to answer the question as well as possible.

Steps in Scientific Method

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High School Module: Scientific Method Alternative Learning System

Identification of a Problem/ Asking Question

 Identification of the problem is the most important part of the process

because it identifies the destination of the study. The clearer and specific
the problem the better.
 This is the area which define what you want to find out.
 The identification and formulation of the problem is the “input” to the study.
The quality of the content depends upon the input given which is the
problem. The concept of “garbage in, garbage out” is very applicable to this
context.
 The research problem mostly evolved in the 4ps- people, problems,
programs and phenomena. The “people” in the concept of 4ps provides
you with the population in which the information is collected while the other
P’s provide the context or the subject area of the study about which the
information is collected.
 In general, everything under the sun can be a source of a problem. The
following will show specific source of a problem which will help you identify
your topic if still don’t have one.
o Observable situations at home, school, community and the like is a
rich source of researchable problem.
o Technological advancement, social development, changes in the
environment which constantly bringing a problem or concerns.
o Record/ archival documents such as previous conducted
researches, journals, dissertations, magazines, term paper and the
like.
o Discussion in the room or in a seminar or any convocation with an
exchange of ideas.
o Daily problems
o Recent trends
o Areas that are not explored
o Discussions with experts and research supervisor

Do A Background Research/ Literature Review

 The literature review is collecting publications, books, journal, magazines and

other publications that are related to the problem that is defined.
 This aims to familiarize the researchers on the existing body of knowledge to the
topic under investigation.
 It give the researchers an idea of the concept of the study, it also clarifies the idea
for the research and it help formulate the methodology needed for the study.

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 On the later part of the process, literature review is essential to support the result
of the study during the write up the research paper. In this note, the review of
related literature pays an extremely important role because you are going to
integrate the result of your study to the finding of the existing body of knowledge-
to support or to contradict.
 The higher the level of your research paper, the more vital literature review is
because integration of the literature to the result of the study is also more thorough.
 The literature review can also be conceptual or empirical literature review. The
conceptual review is related to the concept and theories related to the study while
empirical pertains to the previous studies conducted along the area of interest.
 In general, Review of related literature serves the following functions:
o Sharpen the problem, reformulate it or even leads to defining other closely
related problems.
o Get proper understanding of the problem chosen.
o Acquire proper theoretical and practical knowledge to investigate the
problem.
o Show how the problem under study relates to the previous research studies
and
o Know whether the proposed problem had already been solved.
o Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature.
o Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies.
o Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort.
o Locate your own research within the context of existing literature.
 In your study, the literature review can help you do the following:
o Clarity and focus to the problem
o Understanding and improving your research methodology
o Gives you a wider understanding of the topic or research area
o Contextualize you findings

Constructing a Hypothesis

 A hypothesis is an educated guess about how things work. It is an attempt to

answer your question with an explanation that can be tested. A good hypothesis
allows you to then make a prediction:
 "If _____[I do this] _____, then _____[this]_____ will happen."
 Propose a hypothesis. This is a sort of educated guess about what you expect. It
is a statement used to predict the outcome of an experiment. Usually, a hypothesis
is written in terms of cause and effect. Alternatively, it may describe the relationship
between two phenomena. One type of hypothesis is the null hypothesis or the no-
difference hypothesis. This is an easy type of hypothesis to test because it

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High School Module: Scientific Method Alternative Learning System

assumes changing a variable will have no effect on the outcome. In reality, you
probably expect a change but rejecting a hypothesis may be more useful than
accepting one.
 A hypothesis is a statement of what you think the answer to your question is. It’s
different from the question you formed because it’s answering the question you
developed with a specific prediction that you’ll go on to test. A good hypothesis
should be falsifiable, meaning that it’s possible to prove it wrong.

Testing the Hypothesis

 How do you find an answer to your hypothesis? You conduct an experiment to test
it! Depending on what a scientist is studying, an experiment can be very quick or
take years—some experiments have even been going on for hundreds of years
 Designing a good experiment is a whole industry that some scientists spend their
whole careers working on. But any good science experiment must always serve
its one main function: to prove or disprove a hypothesis.

Analysis of Data and Conclusion

 This is what we’ve all been waiting for—what is the answer to the question? In this
step, scientists take a step back, look at the data, and decide whether to accept or
reject the hypothesis. Sometimes the conclusion is pretty straightforward, but
scientists always do statistical tests just to make sure they’re reading the results
correctly.

Reporting Results
 You’ve just tested an important piece of information. It’s something that nobody
else in the world knows. What good is that knowledge if you keep it to yourself?
The final step of the scientific process is to report your results. Scientists generally
report their results in scientific journals, where each report has been checked over
and verified by other scientists in a process called peer review.

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High School Module: Scientific Method Alternative Learning System

Example

Let’s say that you notice a lot of people are drinking alkaline water because they think it’s
healthier for them, but you’re not sure if it actually is or not.

Steps In Example/ Scenario

Scientific Method
Ask a Question “Does alkaline water actually make people healthier?”

Do Background In our alkaline water example, you could search online for
Research articles or published scientific papers showing how people
change when they drink alkaline water. You could look at
overall health, or specific thinks like lung function, blood pH,
etc…

Form a Hypothesis Let’s say that your background research showed there
wasn’t much of an effect on overall health. A hypothesis for
this might be: “Drinking alkaline water has no effect on how
well people feel.”

Conduct an Experiment To develop an experiment for the alkaline water example,

o testing the Hypothesis you’d need a creative way to get people to drink normal and
alkaline water, and ask them to rank how well they feel after
drinking each.

Analyze Results and Now that you’ve collected your data from the alkaline water
Draw a Conclusion experiment, let’s say that there is no real difference in how
well people feel based on what type of water they drink. In
this case, you’d accept (or, fail to reject) your original
hypothesis. Alkaline water would just be a scam that didn’t
really affect how well people feel.

Report Your Results If your alkaline water study were real, then you’d need to find
a relevant journal and submit your article to them for
publication.

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High School Module: Scientific Method Alternative Learning System

Activity 1.1.: Identification of Problem

1. Identify 5 major problems in your community or in your house then list it down.
First Problem: __________________________________________

Second Problem: _______________________________________

Third Problem: _________________________________________

Fourth Problem: ________________________________________

Fifth Problem: __________________________________________

2. Which among the listed problems above is the most relevant and the highs
priority to solve? And why?

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High School Module: Scientific Method Alternative Learning System

Activity 1.2: Background or the Literature Review and Formulation of Hypothesis

1. From the problem identified above with the highest importance and relevance.
Conduct a literature review for it by supplying the table below:

Problem:______________________________________________________________
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What is known to the problem based from readings/ Reference or source

books/ magazines and the like
e.g: Ryan (2020) Quick Guide
to Research

2. Based from the readings you conducted, what hypothesis you can draws as
based from the given problem to be investigated?

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High School Module: Scientific Method Alternative Learning System

Activity 1.3 Experimentation/ Testing the Hypothesis

1. What can you do or process you will do challenge or test the given hypothesis?
Outline your procedures here:

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High School Module: Scientific Method Alternative Learning System

Activity 1.4: Analysis of Data and conclusion

1. Write here the data gathered and how do the data solve the problem or
investigation? After resenting the data give your conclusion to be written in the box
bellow.

CONCLUSION

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High School Module: Scientific Method Alternative Learning System

Activity 1.5: Reporting the Results

1. Please report the result of the investigation by supply the needed information
below.

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High School Module: Scientific Method Alternative Learning System

2. Write the report of the matrix above in a single paragraph only. Limit it to 500 words
only.
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Activity 1.6: Reflection

1. Based from the activities and readings from this activity, what and why scientific
method is important?

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2. What is the role of scientific method in your day to day life?

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High School Module: Scientific Method Alternative Learning System

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Answer this crossword puzzle:

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High School Module: Scientific Method Alternative Learning System

Answer key:

1) Conclusion, 2) Data 3) Processes 4) Hypothesis 5)Control 6) Resources 7)Problem

References:

1. Littlebins (2019), Scientific Method for kids with examples, visited at

https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/using-scientific-method-experiments-kids/
2. Ryan Fontanilla (2020), Quick Guide to Research
3. Six Stamps of Scientific Methods (undated) visited at
https://www.thoughtco.com/steps-of-the-scientific-method-p2-606045
4. The scientific Method (undated) visited at
https://untamedscience.com/biology/scientific-method/

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