Introduction to the Scientific Method

Fill in the blanks
  • The scientific process is an _____________ method.
    • Find a question or topic of personal interest to you to investigate.
    • Perform background _____________. Frequently this is called a literature review.
    • Create a reasonable _____________ related to the topic.
    • Create a set of _____________ to test the hypothesis, and follow them to collect _____________.
    • Perform an _____________ of your results.
    • Suggest _____________ work, based on new questions raised by your results.
Definitions
  1. Independent variable:
  2. Dependent variable:
  3. Control variable:
Applications

Identify the independent variable(s), the dependent variable(s), and the control variable(s).

  1. A child adds more and more teaspoons of sugar to their cereal, testing how it tastes after each addition of sugar.
  2. To track their fitness, an athlete keeps track of all the calories they are eating and weighs themself every day.
  3. A runner tries running 100 m using different types of running shoes.
  4. A single person tries creating 2 different online dating profiles, and records how many messages they receive with each profile.
  5. A soccer player compares the accuracy of their shot when using the left foot vs. using the right foot.
  6. A teacher compares how loud the class is when students are seated next to their friends, versus when they are seated randomly.
  7. A student compares the food their parent cooks at home to the food that they can buy at school.