How Scientists Work The scientific method Designing an

How Scientists Work The scientific method

Designing an experiment • • • Purpose Research Form a Hypothesis Experiment Analyze Conclusion

Purpose • What do you want to know? • What question are you trying to answer?

Research • Learn as much as you can about the topic

Hypothesis • Make a prediction, state what you think will happen • Answer your question.

Controlled Experiment • Design a test to either confirm or disprove your hypothesis. • Test your hypothesis by an experiment where only one variable is changed at a time. All other variables should be kept unchanged/controlled. • Dependent/responding variable= the variable that is observed or is being measured. • Independent/manipulated variable= the variable that is purposely changed.

Control Group • The group that is left alone, the group is not being tested for anything • used to compare the experimental group to.

Analysis • Record your results of the experiment

Conclusion • State whether your hypothesis was right or wrong and state why. • Analyze your data and determine whether your hypothesis was correct or incorrect.

How a Theory Develops • When we gather and build up enough evidence to support a hypothesis we call that a theory • Theory is a well tested explanation that unifies a broad range of observations. • Theories allow scientist to make accurate predictions about different situations