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Scientific Method

General Chemistry

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12 views

Scientific Method

General Chemistry

Uploaded by

Tuanda TVs
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Scientific Method

Steps of the Scientific Method


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MADE POSSIBLE WITH SUPPORT FROM:

What is the Scientific Method?


The scientific method is a process for experimentation that is used to explore
observations and answer questions.

Do all scientists follow the scientific method exactly? 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. But even when modified, the goal (and many of the
steps) 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 into a logical answer. New information or thinking might also cause a scientist to back
up and repeat steps at any point during the process. 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.
The interactive diagram below may help you understand the scientific method and how it is
applied to an experiment. You can click on parts of the diagram to learn more. Use the "return to
top" button to return to the diagram for more exploration.
Image Credit: created by Amy Cowen for Science Buddies / Science Buddies

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.

For detailed help with this step, use these resources:

 Your Question
 Laboratory Notebook
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.

For detailed help with this step, use these resources:

 Background Research Plan


 Finding Information
 How to Write a Bibliography in APA and MLA styles With Examples
 Research Paper

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.

For detailed help with this step, use these resources:

 Variables
 Variables for Beginners
 Writing a Hypothesis for Your Science Fair Project

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.

For detailed help with this step, use these resources:


 Experimental Procedure
 Materials List
 Conducting an Experiment

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.

For detailed help with this step, use these resources:

 Data Analysis & Graphs


 Conclusions

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.

For detailed help with this step, use these resources:

 Final Report
 Abstract
 Display Board
 Science Fair Judging
Frequently Asked Questions

What are the six steps of the scientific method?


The six steps of the scientific method include: 1) asking a question about
something you observe, 2) doing background research to learn what is
already known about the topic, 3) constructing a hypothesis, 4)
experimenting to test the hypothesis, 5) analyzing the data from the
experiment and drawing conclusions, and 6) communicating the results to
others.

What is a scientific method example?


A simple example of the scientific method is:

 Ask a Question: Why does Greenland look so large on a map?


 Background Research: Learn that Greenland is a quarter the size of the
United States in land mass. Also learn that Mercator projection maps
are made by transferring the images from a sphere to a sheet of paper
wrapped around the sphere in a cylinder.
 Hypothesis: If I make a Mercator projection map, then the items in the
middle of the map will look their true size and the items at the poles
will look larger than they really are.
 Experiment: Use a sphere with 1-inch by 1-inch squares at each pole
and the equator to make a Mercator projection map. Measure the
squares on the Mercator projection map.
 Analyze Data and Make Conclusions: The middle-of-the-map squares
average 1 inch per side while the squares at the poles average
3 inches per side. In conclusion, the projection process used to make
Mercator projection maps creates distortion at the poles, but not at the
equator. This is why Greenland, which is close to the North Pole, looks
larger than it is.
 Communicate: Make a video, write a report, or give a presentation to
educate others about the experiment.

Who invented the scientific method?


The scientific method was not invented by any one person, but is the
outcome of centuries of debate about how best to find out how the natural
world works. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle was among the first
known people to promote that observation and reasoning must be applied to
figure out how nature works. The Arab Muslim mathematician and scientist
Hasan Ibn al-Haytham (known in the western world as Alhazen) is often cited
as the first person to write about the importance of experimentation. Since
then, a large number of scientists have written about how science should
ideally be conducted and contributed to our modern understanding of the
scientific method. Those scientists include Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas,
Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, John Hume, and John Stuart Mill.
Scientists today continue to evolve and refine the scientific method as they
explore new techniques and new areas of science.

Do scientists actually use the scientific method?


Scientists do use the scientific method, but not always exactly as laid out in
the organized steps taught in the classroom. Just like a chef might make a
few changes to a recipe because of the ingredients at hand, a scientist may
modify the scientific method by skipping steps, jumping back and forth
between steps, or repeating a subset of the steps because he or she is
dealing with imperfect real-world conditions. But scientists always strive to
keep to the core principles of the scientific method by using observations,
experiments, and data to support or reject explanations of how a
phenomenon works. While experimenting is considered the best way to test
explanations, there are areas of science, like astronomy, where this is not
always possible.

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