The Scientific Method
Juanita the Future Botanist
Juanita wanted to know if light affected how much plants grow. She thought that plants didn’t really need light in order to grow. She though that if plants are grown in the dark then they will grow just as tall. Juanita decided to perform an experiment to test her hypothesis. She put three pea plants in the closet and three pea plants in front of the window. Every day for a month she measured how high the plants grew. After a month, she made a graph of the average height of plants that were in the dark and plants that were in front of the window. She concluded that her hypothesis was incorrect. Light DOES effect how high plants grow. The plants that were in front of the window had grown while the plants that were in the dark died.
What is Juanita’s question/problem? ______
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What is Juanita’s hypothesis? ______
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What are Juanita’s results? ______
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What are Juanita’s conclusions? ______
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George the Future Pilot
George loved to fly paper airplanes. George noticed that some paper airplanes flew farther than others and George wondered which airplane designs flew farther. George thought that if design A, B, C, and D are flown, then design A will fly farther because it is lighter. George decided to test his hypothesis. He used tape to mark out 1 foot increments on the floor. He stood at zero feet and threw each type of airplane 5 times. He measured how far the airplane traveled each time and recorded the data on a chart. He then averaged how far each type of airplane flew and made a graph of the average distance each type of airplane flew. George decided that his hypothesis was not correct. Airplane design A did not fly the farthest. Airplane design D actually flew 5 feet farther than airplane design A.
What is George’s question/problem? ______
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What is George’s hypothesis? ______
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What are George’s results? ______
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What are George’s conclusions? ______
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Suzie the Sick and Tired Big Sister!
Suzie has a lot of little brothers and sisters that she has to take care of. She has to cook and clean for them and sometimes even change their diapers. Suzie is was tired of messy diapers and so Suzie wanted to find out which brand of diaper was most absorbent. Suzie thought that Pampers were the best but she wanted to find out for sure. She bought three different brands of diapers. She set one of each type of diaper on the counter on top of piece of paper towel. She used a graduated cylinder to pour water on each of the diapers. She kept pouring 10 mL at a time until each of the diapers leaked onto the paper towel. She recorded her data on a chart and made a graph of how much liquid each brand of diaper held. From her graph she saw that Pampers held the most liquid. She decided that her hypothesis was in fact correct. In the future, Suzie will only use Pampers!
What is Suzie’s question/problem? ______
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What is Suzie’s hypothesis? ______
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What are Suzie’s results? ______
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What are Suzie’s conclusions? ______
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Bob the Next Lance Armstrong
Bob loves to go biking on SouthMountain on the weekends. His favorite part is going down the mountain – he LIVES for SPEED! He heard from his science teacher that fatter tired will make you go slower because of friction. Bob wonders if his teacher is right. Do fatter tires really make you go slower on a bike? Bob doesn’t really believe his teacher. Bob thinks that not only are fat tires TIGHT, but they make you go faster. One Saturday, Bob and a friend go to SouthMountain. They measure out 200 meters on a stretch of the road. Bob puts fat tires (33mm) on his bike and goes down the 200m without pedaling. Bob does this three times while his friend times him and records the data. Bob then changes the tires on his bike to skinner (25mm) tires. Again, Bob coasts down the road without pedaling while his friend times him and records the data. Bob and his friend then go back to Bob’s house. At Bob’s house the average the trials and make a bar graph of the average time that it took Bob to coast 200m on each type of tire. When Bob looks at the graph, Bob realizes that his science teacher was right! Fatter tires do make you go slower than thinner tires. Bob’s hypothesis was not correct.
What is Bob’s question/problem? ______
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What is Bob’s hypothesis? ______
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What are Bob’s results? ______
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What are Bob’s conclusions? ______
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Tips on how to… Write Your Hypothesis
1. Your hypothesis is an idea about the solution to your problem/question. It is based on knowledge and research that you already have in your intelligent brains!
2.In other words, your hypothesis is an educated guess.
3.It is OKAY if you are wrong!!! You do not change your hypothesis at the end of the experiment.
5. While not all hypotheses in science begin with “if… then… because…” YOURS WILL!
6. Do not use pronouns – I, you, me, we, us, they, etc.
Sample excellent hypotheses:
“If dawn and dove are used on dishes, then dawn will clean them better, because dawn is more expensive.”
“If salt water and plain water are left out in the open, then salt water will evaporate first because it is less dense.”
“If wheat bread and white bread are exposed to air, then white bread will grow mold first, because it has a different type of sugar than white bread.”
5. Let’s practice… State what the problem is with each hypothesis and rewrite it so that it is better!
1. If gum is chewed during a test, then students will have higher test scores.
a. What’s wrong? ______
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b. Rewrite: ______
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2. If people drink caffeine, then I think that they will run faster, because they will have more energy.
a. What’s wrong? ______
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b. Rewrite: ______
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3. Plants grown in a freezer will be shorter than other plants because the temperature does not allow their roots to expand.
a. What’s wrong? ______
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b. Rewrite: ______
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4. Sweet smelling perfumes are more attractive than sour smelling perfumes.
a. What’s wrong? ______
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b. Rewrite: ______
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5. Pet fish will die in cold water.
a. What’s wrong? ______
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b. Rewrite: ______
______Tips on how to… ID Controls & Variables
1. What is a control? ______
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2. What is a variable? ______
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3. Let’s practice… Refer to the experiments on pages 2 – 4
Juanita the Future Botanist
What are some of Juanita’s controls? ______
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What are some of Juanita’s variables? ______
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George the Future Pilot
What are some of George’s controls? ______
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What are some of George’s variables? ______
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Suzie the Sick and Tired Big Sister!
What are some of Suzie’s controls? ______
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What are some of Suzie’s variables? ______
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Bob the Next Lance Armstrong
What are some of Bob’s controls? ______
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What are some of Bob’s variables? ______
______Tips on how to… Write Your Procedure
1. Do not use pronouns – I, you, me, we, us, they, etc.
2. Number each step.
3. Write each step clearly with just enough detail.
4. Edit your rough draft. Check for spelling mistakes!
5. Let’s practice…
Please write a procedure for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. YUM!
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Tips on
Tips on how to… Make Observations
1. Is your data qualitative or quantitative? ______
Define qualitative: ______
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Define quantitative: ______
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2. You must create a data table to organize your data.
Head row for titles
No empty boxes
3. Edit your rough draft. Check for spelling mistakes!
Data Table Rough Draft Work Page…
Tips on how to… Create the Right Graph
1. What kind of graph should you make?
You make a bar graph when you are ______
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You make a line graph when you are ______
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You make a pie graph when you are ______
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2. Label your graph
X axis label
Y axis label
Graph title at the top!
If necessary, a “key” for colors, etc.
3. Choose the correct intervals for you axes (will you go up by twos? 2, 4, 6, 8, 10?)
4. Edit your rough draft. Check for mistakes!
Graph Rough Draft Work Page…
Tips on how to… Write Your Conclusion
1. Write your conclusion draft first, using this method:
Recall the problem being solved
Explain the hypothesis
Results are explained
Uncertainties are discussed
New things learned
And something new…
Research
2. Do not use pronouns – I, you, me, we, us, they, etc.
3. Edit your rough draft. Check for spelling mistakes!
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