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What is the placebo effect?
What is the placebo effect?
Scientific Thinking
Scientific Thinking
Thinking like a scientist requires patience, diligence, repetiveness, radical thinking, a teamwork mindset at times, and the ability to realize that,
without failure there is no success.
without failure there is no success.
Most scientist will take the following steps when experimenting:
- Research all they can about their topic
- Make an educated guess about what will happen based on their research and background knowledge. This is known as a hypothesis and is usually posed as an if, then statement
- Plan the experiment
- Perform the experiment
- If it works, great! See if you can get the same results 3-5 times
- If it doesn't work, great! Go back to your research and plan another experiment to achieve your desired results
- Once you have successfully proven or disproven your hypothesis, interpret and analyze your data. What does this mean? What does this mean for the bigger picture? How can we use this to better humankind or our planet?
- Finally, share your results with people in your field and outside of your field. Write an article, use graphs and pictures and make others understand what you do.
- From there, hopefully other scientists will begin to repeat your experiment and get the same results
Qualitative vs Quantitative Observations
Qualitative vs Quantitative Observations
An observation uses your 5 senses to state facts.
There are two types of observations, qualitative and quantitative.
- Qualitative observations - use your senses to describe the information gathered. (Sight, smell, touch, taste and hear.)
- I smell smoke
- There is water on the cars
- The rock is smooth
- Quantitative observations - These results are measurable and usually contain a number.
- She took 5 minutes
- Her temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit
- There are 7 cups
Inference
Inference
a conclusion drawn from your observations.
- I observed that there is water on the cars, worms on the ground, and I see that people are carrying closed umbrellas. My inference would be that it rained.
Controlled experiment
Controlled experiment
an experiment that involves changing one factor and observing its effect on another factor. ALL OTHER FACTORS MUST REMAIL CONSTANT (THE SAME).
Variables are factors that can be changed in an experiment.
An independent variable is the variable that is changed in an experiment.
The dependent variable changes as a result of the independent variable.
Constants are the variables that are not changed in the experiments. A control group is a group that has no factors changed. They may think that factors have changed but they have not.
Ex//: There are 40 people in the class and the whole class gets headaches every day. I give half the class (Group A) Tylenol and the other half (Group B) a sugar pill, but make them think its Tylenol (placebo). After a few hours over half the people in group A no longer have headaches and about 5 people in group B no longer have headaches.
The control group = Group B
The control = the sugar pill (placebo)
Independent Variable = Tylenol
Dependent Variable = Headache
Outcome = Tylenol works to reduce headaches.
Observation: Use your senses to gather information about a topic.
Research: Find as much background information as you can about your topic so that you can make a well informed hypothesis.
QUESTION: What is it that you are trying to find out? What is the purpose of your experiment. Your question is based on your observations.
HYPOTHESIS: This is the educated statement about what it is you think is going to happen as a result of the experiment.
Experiment: This is when you test your hypothesis. You will either prove or disprove it.
Analyze / Interpret Data: Analyze your evidence or data. This is where you can begin to draw conclusions. If you prove your hypothesis to be correct move on to analyze your results. If your experiment disproves your hypothesis go back, create a new hypothesis and continue with the next steps.
Share Your Results: Show what happened in your experiment. Explain what you did, what you intended to find out, what you found out, whether you were right or wrong, what could have happened to cause error to your experiment, and what would you change to get a different answer next time. Explain why you did this experiment and what it means for you now that you know your answer.
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