Scientific method Powerpoint at the bottom of this page.

The main steps you should know are as follows:

Notes:

Multiple trials are needed to ensure that your experiment is a fair experiment and is not giving you false positives or negatives. This means that we want to rule out data that for some reason or another might be a "fluke" due to some other circumstance.

Refining your experiment Sometimes an experimental set up doesn't work for one reason or another. It could be a human error, a mechanical error in the design or maybe your research is pointing you to a better question. Whatever the reason, scientists often modify how they are going to complete their experiments. This is completely valid, but should be researched and communicated in the communications step.

Some variables you should know are

Independent (manipulated) - thing you are changing

Dependent (responding) - thing you are measuring based on the change.

Control variable - variables that are kept the same.

Controlled experiment - usually has an experimental setup where nothing happens (no treatment is given) to use as a comparison (what would happen if you didn't do the experiment?).

Communicating your results often can mean publishing in a journal. Scientific journals have peer reviews. A peer review is a process where other scientists look at your experiment to make sure that it is a fair test.

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