Scientific Method

Socrates (469 BC - 399 BC), Plato (427 BC - 347 BC), and Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) are among the most famous of the Greek philosophers. Plato was a student of Socrates, and Aristotle was a student of Plato. These three were probably the greatest thinkers of their time. Aristotle's views on physical science were highly influential and widely accepted until well into the 1300s.

Unfortunately, many of Aristotle's opinions were wrong. Without doubt, Aristotle was a brilliant man, but he was simply using a method unsuitable for determining the nature of the physical world. The philosopher's method depended on logical thinking and not on observing the natural world. This led to many errors in Aristotle's views on nature. Let's consider two of Aristotle's ideas as examples.

In Aristotle's opinion, men were bigger and stronger than women; therefore, it was logical to him that men would have more teeth than women. Thus, Aristotle concluded it was a true fact that men had more teeth than women. It never entered his mind to actually look into the mouths of both genders and count their teeth. Had he done so, he would have found that men and women have exactly the same number of teeth.

In terms of physical science, Aristotle considered what would happen if he were to drop two balls of the exact same shape and size but of different masses. In his mind, it was clear that the heavier ball would fall faster than the lighter one, and he concluded that this must be a law of nature. Once again, he did not consider doing an experiment to see which ball would fall faster. His conclusion was logical to him at the time and would still seem logical today. If someone told you that the heavier ball would fall faster, you would have no reason to disbelieve it. However, it is not true that a heavier ball would fall faster, and the best way to prove this is to try it. In fact, eighteen centuries later, Galileo did try the experiment and dropped two balls of different masses, but with the same size and shape, off a building (legend says the Leaning Tower of Pisa). Galileo discovered, by experimental observation, that the two balls hit the ground at exactly the same time. Aristotle's assumption was, once again, wrong.

The Scientific Method of Problem Solving

In the 16th and 17th centuries, innovative thinkers were developing a new way to understand the nature of the world around them. They were developing a method that relied upon making observations so that any conclusions they made corresponded to their observations.

The scientific method is a method of investigation involving observation and experimentation to acquire new knowledge, solve problems, and answer questions. Scientists frequently list the scientific method as a series of steps. Other scientists oppose this listing of steps because not all steps occur in every case, nor do they always occur in order. The scientific method is listed here as a series of steps, but you should remember that the scientific method is a basic and adaptable strategy for tackling scientific questions.

• 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 or Gather information

        • Construct a Hypothesis

        • Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment

        • Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion

        • Communicate Your Results by drawing a conclusion

  • 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.

1. State the problem or ask a question.

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 an Experiment

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.

5. 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.

6.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!

Repeat the Work.

If the hypothesis turns out to be true, then it becomes necessary to check it again by repeating the experiment several times. If the hypothesis is incorrect, revise the hypothesis and do the experiment again.

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 several others perform the same experiment and get same results, the hypothesis becomes a Scientific Theory.

The Advantages of Scientific Method:

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

Example of Scientific Process