THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD, MEASUREMENTS AND NOTATIONS

• THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
• The scientific method is a way to ask and answer scientific questions by making observations and doing experiments.
• The steps of the scientific method are to:
  • Ask a Question
  • Do Background Research
  • Construct a Hypothesis
  • Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment
  • Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion
  • Communicate Your Results
• It is important for your experiment to be a fair test. A "fair test" occurs when you change only one factor (variable) and keep all other conditions the same.

Scientific-Method-Song-WITH-LYRICS

1. State the problem.
The scientific method begins when a question is asked using the words why or when or how or where or which or who or what regarding something that has been observed. The answer to the question must be something that can be measured and preferably a number.What do you want to learn? An example would be, "What doorknob in school has the most germs ?" or "Do girls have faster reflexes than boys?" or "Does the color of a light bulbaffect the growth of grass seeds?"

2. Gather Information.

It is not a good idea to begin from a scratch to answer the question.Find out as much as you can. Look for information in books, on the internet, and by talking with teachers to get the most information you can before you start experimenting.And confirm that the past errors would not get repeated.
3.Form a hypothesis.
After doing your research, try to predict the answer to the problem. A hypothesis means an educated surmise of how processes occur. Two things must be kept in mind while stating a hypothesis.

1. it must be possible to measure the terms in the hypothesis
2. the hypothesis must answer the original question

The hypothesis must be worded as follows: "If __ this is done __ , then __ this __ will take place".
 An example would be, "If I grow grass seeds under green light bulbs, then they will grow faster than plants growing under red light bulbs."
4. Test the hypothesis.
Do this by conducting the experiment.The experiment that is performed proves the authenticity of the hypothesis. Care must be taken that the experiment is a fair test. As stated earlier, one factor is altered during the experiment and all other factors are kept same. The experiment must be repeated for the same and different set of values to ensure that the initial results were not a fluke.
In our example, you would set up grass seeds under a green light bulb and a grass seeds under a red light and observe each for a couple of weeks. You would also set up a grass seeds under regular white light so that you can compare it with the others. If you are doing this for a science fair, you will probably have to write down exactly what you did for your experiment step by step.

•  Experimental Group  part of the experiment that includes the Independent and Dependent variable
• Independent Variable
  This is the part of your experiment that you will test (vary) to answer your hypothesis. In the example above, the independent variable would be the different colors of the light bulbs.
• Dependent Variable
  This is what occurs in response to the changing independent variable. In our example the Dependent Variable is how much the grass seeds grow.
• Control Group
  The control should be the part of the experiment where you do not include the Independent Variable. In our example, grass seed that is growing under the white (uncolored) bulb would be your control. The control lets you compare your results in the experiment. 

4. Record and Analyze Data.
After the experiment is complete, all the measured values are collected together. An analysis is done to check whether the hypothesis is proved true. Using a graph to plot out your data would assist to give a meaningful output.
5. State the Conclusion.
Write what you have found out.The answer to your question is your conclusion.It frequently happens that the hypothesis turns out to be false. Then, the alternative is to formulate a new hypothesis and begin the steps of the scientific method all over again. It means that you have to review the data and check to see if your hypothesis was correct. If the grass under the green light bulb grew faster, then you proved your hypothesis, if not, your hypothesis was wrong. It is not "bad" if your hypothesis was wrong, because you still discovered something!
6. Repeat the Work.
If the hypothesis turns out to be true, then it becomes necessary to check it again by using a new approach.
OR Report the Work.
The results of the experiment and the hypothesis must be conveyed to others through a display board/Poster or by publishing a final report. When others perform the same experiment and get same results, the hypothesis becomes a Scientific Theory.

How to prepare a winning presentation.

• Prepare a POSTER to give your audience a quick overview of the question you asked, the method you used, the result you got and the conclusion you came to.
• Draw charts, diagrams or illustrations to explain your question, methods and results. A neat and organized poster will obviously communicate your work better than a sloppy, disorganized one.
• Standardized cardboard display boards can be purchased, or you can make your own. Your entire display should not exceed three feet in width.
• Parents, resist the temptation to do this for your kids or improve on their abilities. The judges know what a high school student handwriting- and reasoning- looks like. They are interested in what the student discovered, and whether the student did their best.
• Your NOTEBOOK is an important part of your presentation- it will fill in the nitty- gritty details which would be too much for your audience to take in on the poster. Make sure it is complete and the information in it is clear. Display it with your poster for those who want to know more about your project than the bare bones.
• DEMONSTRATION MATERIALS which illustrate a scientific principle, equipment or materials used, or enable others to retrace your steps "hands-on" will make an exhibit more interesting and help others understand your discovery. Such materials should be placed in front of your backdrop display.If your experiment involves animals, dangerous chemicals or valuable equipment, take photographs to illustrate your work instead. Exhibits will be left in the hall overnight and examined by many other students and their families.
• You will not want to risk damage or loss to yourself or others. Exhibit items should present no hazards to observers who may view the display.

The Advantages of Scientific Method:

organizes our thoughts clarifies our thoughts ends aimless wandering helps ideas gather shape routes to new knowledge increases self-confidence encourages conceptual thinking

aids specific transfer of learning doesn’t have to be reinvented avoids relying only on intuition doesn’t have to be learned by osmosis gives direction on future problems trains for change and innovation keeps us pointed in the right direction

The Opposite of  Not using Scientific Method Is Chance where there are:

·  Haphazard guesses ·  Wrong analysis ·  Wasted time ·  No solutions ·  Confusion

·  Wasted energy ·  Quick fixes ·  Wandering aimlessly ·  Misdirection ·  Mistakes and errors

MEASUREMENTS AND SCIENTIFIC NOTATIONS

Qualitative
- No measurements performed.
Ex. ¯ It is hot today.
The powder was red.
He was heavy.
Quantitative
- Requires measurements.
Ex. ¯ It is 43F today.
The powder absorbed 475 nm light.
He weighed 276 pounds.
3 Systems of Measurement
Which is better:
English or metric system?
Neither.
Both are systems based on arbitrary standards.
4 Units of Convenients
Units of measurement are chosen primarily for convenience of user.
For example:
• How tall are you in miles?
• How much do you weigh in tons?
• How far from the earth to the moon in inches?
5 A New Arbitrary Measure
Let’s use the width of the room as our base unit for measuring length. We will refer to this unit as one “room”.
6 Acceptance
The ‘room’ unit that we have derived is inherently no better or worse than inches, meters, cubits, …
The primary disadvantage of this unit is that that is not a standard, well-accepted, reproducible definition of a ‘room’.
We could define room in terms of feet, inches, meters, …, but this makes room a secondary standard based on the primary standard of feet, inches, meters, …
7 Metric System
Advantages
• Well accepted around world.
• Easy to convert within system.
• Convenient for almost any size scale (with prefixes).
Almost all scientific work is reported in metric units because these are so well accepted worldwide. This makes experiments much easier.
8 Metric Problems
Disadvantages
• NOT well accepted in U.S.A. but very applicable in the Philippines
• Conversion between any two different systems difficult.
(The problem of converting between two different sets of units is not limited to the metric system.)
9 Metric Prefixes

10 Orders of Magnitude
Metric system based on powers of 10.
(Classroom display of orders of magnitude).
Conversion between units simply means moving decimal point.
Ex.
1,560,000 m = 156 cm = 1.56 m = 0.00156 km
Note: It takes fewer big units than small units.
11 Metric Conversions
To convert between metric units:
1. Find order-of-magnitude difference between prefixes.
2. This difference indicates how much to shift decimal point.
3. When going from smaller to larger units, make number smaller.
4. When going from larger to smaller units, make number larger.
12 Scientific Notation
Convenient for very large or very small numbers.
Ex. 1 gram of water contains
33,400,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules
or
3.34 x 10^22 molecules
Sci. Notation Explained
In scientific notation,
number x 10exponent
number
- must be \geqslant 1 and < 10 exponent – indicates position of decimal point Positive (+) exponents indicate large numbers (>1)
Negative (-) exponents indicate small numbers