The Scientific Method

The Scientific Method is the fundamental way scientists prove or disprove their theories. It is a step-by-step approach to investigating something in a logical and repeatable manner.

The Scientific Method consists of five basic steps:

1. State Your Quest—what do you want to find out?
2. Make Your Guess—form a Hypothesis—what do you think will happen?
3. Design Your Test—the Procedure—how will you find out? What methods and materials do you need to check your hypothesis?
4. Observe with Zest—the Results—what actually happened?
5. Conclude Your Best—what did you learn?

Some examples:

Heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects. That’s what people thought a long time ago. A man named Galileo, who was an all-time super scientist, did not think this was so. He decided to find out if this was true [the problem]. He formed a hypothesis that all objects fall at the same rate of speed. According to legend he went to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy to perform his experiment with two lead balls—one big and one small. He dropped them off and he (as well as a number of other people) observed that they hit at the same time. He concluded that objects do in fact fall at the same rate of speed. He and others went on to figure out how gravity works, how to calculate the speed of things that fall, etc.

Suppose you wanted to see if plants grew differently if they were fed with different liquids [Quest]. You'd form a hypothesis like "plants grow faster with water than with Coke". How would you design your experiment? Multiple plants, same soil, same conditions, everything the same except for the liquid. Then you could measure the plants every day for, say 20 days and record the results you observed and form your conclusion.

In your Monday folder materials there is a good handout on applying these steps in your project.

Follow the steps in those to sources and you will be on your way to becoming a super scientist!