STEPS OF THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

1. Ask a Question

The scientific method starts when you ask a question about something that you observe:
How, What, When, Who, Which, Why, or Where?

For a science fair project some teachers require that the question be something you can
measure, preferably with a number.

Finding an Idea for Your Science Fair Project

One of the most important considerations in picking a topic for your science fair project is to
find a subject that you consider interesting. You will be spending a lot of time on it, so you
do not want your science fair project to be about something that is boring.

We know that finding a topic is the hardest part of a science fair project, and sometimes
you just need a little help focusing on what sorts of topics would be of interest to you. To
help you find a science fair project idea that can hold your interest, Science Buddies has
developed the Topic Selection Wizard. By answering a series of questions about everyday
interests and activities, you will help us identify an area of science that is best for you. If
your teacher has assigned a specific area of science (like "biology" or "earth science") for
your science fair, you can also browse our whole library of projects by subject. If you are
coming up with your own topic, or have a topic idea from somewhere else, be sure to look
at our list of Science Fair Topics to Avoid. Steering clear of these will ensure you have a
high-quality science fair project that is easier to complete!

Your Science Fair Project Question

Once you have chosen a topic of interest, you will need to create a related scientific
question. Without a good question, your whole science fair project will be much harder, if
not impossible! It is important to select a question that is going to be interesting to work on
for at least a few weeks and that is specific enough to allow you to find the answer with a
simple experiment. A scientific question usually starts with: How, What, When, Who, Which,
Why, or Where. Here are some characteristics of a good science fair project question:

The question should be interesting enough to read about, then work on for the next few
weeks.

There should be at least three sources of written information on the subject. You want to be
able to build on the experience of others!

The question should contain one factor (variable) that you can change in your experiment
and at least one factor (variable) that you can measure.

Now, for something like a science fair project, it is important to think ahead. This will save
you a lot of stress and unhappiness later. Visualize the experiment you might perform to
answer your question. How does that possible experiment stack up against the following
issues?

The experiment should measure changes to the important factors (variables) using a
number that represents a quantity such as a count, percentage, length, width, weight,
voltage, velocity, energy, time, etcetera. Or, just as good might be an experiment that
measures a factor (variable) that is simply present or not present. For example, lights on in
one trial, then lights off in another trial, or use fertilizer in one trial, then do not use
fertilizer in another trial. If you cannot observe or measure the results of your experiment,
you are not doing science!

You must be able to control other factors that might influence your experiment, so that you
can do a fair test. A "fair test" occurs when you change only one factor (variable) and keep
all other conditions the same.

Is your experiment safe to perform?

Do you have all the materials and equipment you need for your science fair project, or will
you be able to obtain them in a reasonable amount of time at a cost that is okay for your
family?

Do you have enough time to do your experiment before the science fair? For example, most
plants take weeks to grow. If you want to do a project on plants, you need to start very
early! For most experiments you will want to allow enough time to do a practice run in order
to work out any problems in your procedures.

Does your science fair project meet all the rules and requirements for your science fair?

Have you avoided the bad science fair projects listed in the Science Fair Topics to Avoid
table in this project guide?

If you do not have good answers for these issues, then you probably should look for a
better science fair project question to answer.

Keep in mind that science fair projects that involve human subjects, vertebrate animals
(animals with a backbone) or animal tissue, pathogenic agents, DNA, or controlled or
hazardous substances, often need approval from your science fair's Scientific Review
Committee beforehand. Check with your teacher or the science fair coordinator for rules
specific to your science fair.

These are examples of good science fair project questions:

 How does water purity affect surface tension?

 When is the best time to plant soy beans?
 Which material is the best insulator?
 How does arch curvature affect load carrying strength?
 How do different foundations stand up to earthquakes?
 What sugars do yeast use?

2. Do Background Research

Rather than starting from scratch in putting together a plan for answering your question,
you want to be a savvy scientist using library and Internet research to help you find the
best way to do things and ensure that you don't repeat mistakes from the past.

Background research is necessary so that you know how to design and understand your
experiment. To make a background research plan — a roadmap of the research questions
you need to answer — follow these steps:

1. Identify the keywords in the question for your science fair project. Brainstorm
additional keywords and concepts.
2. Use a table with the "question words" (why, how, who, what, when, where) to
generate research questions from your keywords. For example:
 What is the difference between a series and parallel circuit?
 When does a plant grow the most, during the day or night?
 Where is the focal point of a lens?
 How does a java applet work?
 Does a truss make a bridge stronger?
 Why are moths attracted to light?
 Which cleaning products kill the most bacteria?

Throw out irrelevant questions.

3. Add to your background research plan a list of mathematical formulas or equations

(if any) that you will need to describe the results of your experiment.
4. You should also plan to do background research on the history of similar experiments
or inventions.
5. Network with other people with more experience than yourself: your mentors,
parents, and teachers. Ask them: "What science concepts should I study to better
understand my science fair project?" and "What area of science covers my project?"
Better yet, ask even more specific questions.
Why the Need for Background Research?

So that you can design an experiment, you need to research what techniques and
equipment might be best for investigating your topic. Rather than starting from scratch,
savvy investigators want to use their library and Internet research to help them find the
best way to do things. You want to learn from the experience of others rather than blunder
around and repeat their mistakes. A scientist named Mike Kalish put it humorously like this:
"A year in the lab can save you a day in the library."

Background research is also important to help you understand the theory behind your
experiment. In other words, science fair judges like to see that you understand why your
experiment turns out the way it does. You do library and Internet research so that you can
make a prediction of what will occur in your experiment, and then whether that prediction is
right or wrong, you will have the knowledge to understand what caused the behavior you
observed.

Making a Background Research Plan: How to Know What to Look For

When you are driving a car there are two ways to find your destination: drive around
randomly until you finally stumble upon what you're looking for OR look at a map before
you start. (Which way do your parents drive?)

Finding information for your background research is very similar. But, since libraries and the
Internet both contain millions of pages of information and facts, you might never find what
you're looking for unless you start with a map! To avoid getting lost, you need a background
research plan.

3. Construct 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."

State both your hypothesis and the resulting prediction you will be testing. Predictions must
be easy to measure.

What are Variables?

In science, a variable is any factor, trait, or condition that can exist in differing amounts or
types.

Scientists try to figure out how the natural world works. To do this they use experiments to
search for cause and effect relationships. Cause and effect relationships explain why things
happen and allow you to reliably predict the outcomes of an action. Scientists use the
scientific method to design an experiment so that they can observe or measure if changes
to one thing cause something else to vary in a repeatable way.

These factors that change in a scientific experiment are variables.

A properly designed experiment usually has three kinds of variables: independent,

dependent, and controlled.

What is an Independent Variable?

The independent variable is the one that is changed by the scientist. Why just one? Well, if
you changed more than one variable it would be hard to figure out which change is causing
what you observe. For example, what if our scientific question was: "How does the size of a
dog affect how much food it eats?"; then, during your feeding experiments you changed
both the size of the dog and the time of day the dogs were fed. The data might get a bit
confusing— did the larger dog eat less food than the smaller dog because of his size or
because it was the middle of the day and dogs prefer to eat more in the morning?

Sometimes it is impossible to just change one variable, and in those cases, scientists rely on
more-complicated mathematical analysis and additional experiments to try to figure out
what is going on. Older students are invited to read more about that in our Experimental
 Design for Advanced Science Projects page. To be clear though, for a science fair, it is
usually wise to have only one independent variable at a time. If you are new to doing
science projects and want to know the effect of changing multiple variables, do multiple
tests where you focus on one independent variable at a time.

What is a Dependent Variable?

The dependent variables are the things that the scientist focuses his or her observations on
to see how they respond to the change made to the independent variable. In our dog
example, the dependent variable is how much the dogs eat. This is what we are observing
and measuring. It is called the "dependent" variable because we are trying to figure out
whether its value depends on the value of the independent variable. If there is a direct link
between the two types of variables (independent and dependent) then you may be
uncovering a cause and effect relationship. The number of dependent variables in an
experiment varies, but there can be more than one.

What is a Controlled Variable?

Experiments also have controlled variables. Controlled variables are quantities that a
scientist wants to remain constant, and she or he must observe them as carefully as the
dependent variables. For example, in the dog experiment example, you would need to
control how hungry the dogs are at the start of the experiment, the type of food you are
feeding them, and whether the food was a type that they liked. Why? If you did not, then
other explanations could be given for differences you observe in how much they eat. For
instance, maybe the little dog eats more because it is hungrier that day, maybe the big dog
does not like the dog food offered, or maybe all dogs will eat more wet dog food than dry
dog food. So, you should keep all the other variables the same (you control them) so that
you can see only the effect of the one variable (the independent variable) that you are
trying to test. Similar to our example, most experiments have more than one controlled
variable. Some people refer to controlled variables as "constant variables."

In the best experiments, the scientist must be able to measure the values for each variable.
Weight or mass is an example of a variable that is very easy to measure. However, imagine
trying to do an experiment where one of the variables is love. There is no such thing as a
"love-meter." You might have a belief that someone is in love, but you cannot really be
sure, and you would probably have friends that do not agree with you. So, love is not
measurable in a scientific sense; therefore, it would be a poor variable to use in an
experiment.

Independent Dependent
Controlled Variables
Question Variable Variables
(What I keep the same)
(What I change) (What I observe)

 The faucet
How
much  Water pressure, or how much the water is
water Water faucet Amount of water "pushing"
flows opening (closed, flowing,
"Different water pressure might also cause different
through a half open, fully measured in
amounts of water to flow and different faucets may
faucet at open) liters per minute
behave differently, so to ensure a fair test, I want
different
to keep the water pressure and the faucet the same
openings?
for each faucet opening that I test."

4. Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment

Your experiment tests whether your prediction is accurate and thus your hypothesis is
supported or not. 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.

Write the experimental procedure like a step-by-step recipe for your science experiment. A
good procedure is so detailed and complete that it lets someone else duplicate your
experiment exactly!

Repeating a science experiment is an important step to verify that your results are
consistent and not just an accident.

For a typical experiment, you should plan to repeat it at least three times (more is better).

If you are doing something like growing plants, then you should do the experiment on at
least three plants in separate pots (that's the same as doing the experiment three times).

If you are doing an experiment that involves testing or surveying different groups, you
won't need to repeat the experiment three times, but you will need to test or survey a
sufficient number of participants to insure that your results are reliable. You will almost
always need many more than three participants! See our Science Buddies resource, How
Many Survey Participants Do I Need?

Overview

Now that you have come up with a hypothesis, you need to develop an experimental
procedure for testing whether it is true or false.

The first step of designing your experimental procedure involves planning how you will
change your independent variable and how you will measure the impact that this change
has on the dependent variable. To guarantee a fair test when you are conducting your
experiment, you need to make sure that the only thing you change is the independent
variable. And, all the controlled variables must remain constant. Only then can you be sure
that the change you make to the independent variable actually caused the changes you
observe in the dependent variables.

Scientists run experiments more than once to verify that results are consistent. In other
words, you must verify that you obtain essentially the same results every time you repeat
the experiment with the same value for your independent variable. This insures that the
answer to your question is not just an accident. Each time that you perform your
experiment is called a run or a trial. So, your experimental procedure should also specify
how many trials you intend to run. Most teachers want you to repeat your experiment a
minimum of three times. Repeating your experiment more than three times is even better,
and doing so may even be required to measure very small changes in some experiments.

In some experiments, you can run the trials all at once. For example, if you are growing
plants, you can put three identical plants (or seeds) in three separate pots and that would
count as three trials.

In experiments that involve testing or surveying different groups of people, you will not
need to repeat the experiment multiple times. However, in order to ensure that your results
are reliable, you need to test or survey enough people to make sure that your results are
reliable. How many participants are enough, what is the ideal sample size? See the Science
Buddies resource, How Many Survey Participants Do I Need? to find out.

Every good experiment also compares different groups of trials with each other. Such a
comparison helps insure that the changes you see when you change the independent
variable are in fact caused by the independent variable. There are two types of trial groups:
experimental groups and control groups.

The experimental group consists of the trials where you change the independent variable.
For example, if your question asks whether fertilizer makes a plant grow bigger, then the
experimental group consists of all trials in which the plants receive fertilizer.

In many experiments it is important to perform a trial with the independent variable at a

special setting for comparison with the other trials. This trial is referred to as a control
group. The control group consists of all those trials where you leave the independent
variable in its natural state. In our example, it would be important to run some trials in
which the plants get no fertilizer at all. These trials with no fertilizer provide a basis for
comparison, and would insure that any changes you see when you add fertilizer are in fact
caused by the fertilizer and not something else.

However, not every experiment is like our fertilizer example. In another kind of experiment,
many groups of trials are performed at different values of the independent variable. For
example, if your question asks whether an electric motor turns faster if you increase the
voltage, you might do an experimental group of three trials at 1.5 volts, another group of
three trials at 2.0 volts, three trials at 2.5 volts, and so on. In such an experiment you are
comparing the experimental groups to each other, rather than comparing them to a single
control group. You must evaluate whether your experiment is more like the fertilizer
example, which requires a special control group, or more like the motor example that does
not.

Whether or not your experiment has a control group, remember that every experiment has
a number of controlled variables. Controlled variables are those variables that we don't want
to change while we conduct our experiment, and they must be the same in every trial and
every group of trials. In our fertilizer example, we would want to make sure that every trial
received the same amount of water, light, and warmth. Even though an experiment
measuring the effect of voltage on the motor's speed of rotation may not have a control
group, it still has controlled variables: the same motor is used for every trial and the load on
the motor (the work it does) is kept the same.

A little advance preparation can ensure that your experiment will run smoothly and that you
will not encounter any unexpected surprises at the last minute. You will need to prepare a
detailed experimental procedure for your experiment so you can ensure consistency from
beginning to end. Think about it as writing a recipe for your experiment. This also makes it
much easier for someone else to test your experiment if they are interested in seeing how
you got your results.

Write the experimental procedure like a step-by-step recipe for your science experiment. A
good procedure is so detailed and complete that it lets someone else duplicate your
experiment exactly!

Repeating a science experiment is an important step to verify that your results are
consistent and not just an accident.

For a typical experiment, you should plan to repeat it at least three times (more is better).

If you are doing something like growing plants, then you should do the experiment on at
least three plants in separate pots (that's the same as doing the experiment three times).

If you are doing an experiment that involves testing or surveying different groups, you
won't need to repeat the experiment three times, but you will need to test or survey a
sufficient number of participants to ensure that your results are reliable. You will almost
always need many more than three participants! See our Science Buddies resource, How
Many Survey Participants Do I Need?
 For a Good Experimental
Procedure, You Should
What Makes a Good Experimental Procedure?
Answer "Yes" to Every
Question

Have you included a description and size for all experimental and
Yes / No
control groups?

Have you included a step-by-step list of all procedures? Yes / No

Have you described how to the change the independent variable and
Yes / No
how to measure that change?

Have you explained how to measure the resulting change in the

Yes / No
dependent variable or variables?

Have you explained how the controlled variables will be maintained at

Yes / No
a constant value?

Have you specified how many times you intend to repeat the
experiment (should be at least three times), and is that number of Yes / No
repetitions sufficient to give you reliable data?

The ultimate test: Can another individual duplicate the experiment

Yes / No
based on the experimental procedure you have written?

If you are doing an engineering or programming project, have you

Yes / No
completed several preliminary designs?

5. Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion

Once your experiment is complete, you collect your measurements and analyze them to see
if they support your hypothesis or not.

Scientists often find that their predictions were not accurate and their hypothesis was not
supported, and in such cases, they will communicate the results of their experiment and
then go back and construct a new hypothesis and prediction based on the information they
learned during their experiment. This starts much of the process of the scientific method
over again. Even if they find that their hypothesis was supported, they may want to test it
again in a new way.

Your conclusions summarize how your results support or contradict your original hypothesis:

Summarize your science fair project results in a few sentences and use this summary to
support your conclusion. Include key facts from your background research to help explain
your results as needed.

State whether your results support or contradict your hypothesis. (Engineering &
programming projects should state whether they met their design criteria.)
If appropriate, state the relationship between the independent and dependent variable.

Summarize and evaluate your experimental procedure, making comments about its success
and effectiveness.

Suggest changes in the experimental procedure (or design) and/or possibilities for further
study.

6. Communicate Your Results

To complete your science fair project, you will communicate your results to others in a final
report and/or a display board. Professional scientists do almost exactly the same thing by
publishing their final report in a scientific journal or by presenting their results on a poster
or during a talk at a scientific meeting. In a science fair, judges are interested in your
findings regardless of whether or not they support your original hypothesis.

At this point, you are in the home stretch. Except for writing the abstract, preparing your
science fair project final report will just entail pulling together the information you have
already collected into one large document.

Your final report will include these sections:

Title page.

Abstract. An abstract is an abbreviated version of your final report.

Table of contents.

Question, variables, and hypothesis.

Background research. This is the Research paper you wrote before you started your
experiment.

Materials list.

Experimental procedure.

Data analysis and discussion. This section is a summary of what you found out in your
experiment, focusing on your observations, data table, and graph(s), which should be
included at this location in the report.

Conclusions.

Ideas for future research. Some science fairs want you to discuss what additional
research you might want to do based on what you learned.

Acknowledgments. This is your opportunity to thank anyone who helped you with your
science fair project, from a single individual to a company or government agency.