The Scientific Method
The Scientific Method is the process by which all scientists investigate problems to find answers to the
questions that their observations have produced. It can also be applied to other areas other than science.
The terms may be different from those that you have learned in the past but the method is basically the same.
1. Make Observations – the scientist will make observations that will help with the question or problem.
Observing the situation before you begin will allow you to design a better experiment. The example
we used in class dealt with two cars – one got 5 miles per gallon and the other got 30 miles per gallon.
We discussed what was the same and what was different between the two cars. From those
observations we came up with two questions that we could investigate.
2. Identify the Question or Problem – once we have made our observations, we need to develop the
questions or problems that those observations have produced. Only one question or problem can be
investigated at a time. The question or problem we decide to test must be able to be investigated. If
we come up with a question that we cannot investigate, then another one must be used. For our
example we came up with two possible problems – the material that the cars were made of were
different and the thickness of the materials were different.
3. Purpose a hypothesis – a hypothesis is an educated guess that we will make based on the information
(from our initial observations) we have gathered. Again we can only state one hypothesis at a time. A
hypothesis will usually take the format of an If….. then statement. In our example we decided to use
the thickness of the material to test first. The hypothesis would be something like this: If the material
of our car is thinner, then we would expect it to get better gas mileage.
4. Plan and conduct your experiment – once you have made your hypothesis, you need to design an
experiment to test it. The experiment must keep everything constant except the thing that you are
going to test. In our example we keep all factors constant – all things about the car expect for the
thickness of the body material, drove it over the same track, at the same speed, with the same amount
of gas in the car.
5. Gather, record, and analyze the data – as you are conducting the experiment you will be gathering the
information (data) that you will need to determine if your hypothesis is true or not. Recording the data
is important because that way you won’t forget anything that you observed during the experiment.
Once the experiment is complete, you need to analyze the data to see if you were right or not.
6. Confirm or reject your hypothesis – after you have analyzed your data you will either confirm (it was
true) or reject (it was false) your hypothesis. If your hypothesis was confirmed, you’re done. If your
hypothesis was rejected, you need to go back to step #2 and use the next question or problem to test.