Scientific Method

Go Back

Scientific Method
The scientific method is a general set of "things to do" when conducting scientific investigations. We're not really going to call them "steps" because they may be done out of order, and some may even be skipped. The nature and type of investigation determines the procedures you will need. Listed below are the general procedures or "things done" in a scientific investigation.

- Ask a question
- Make observations
- Form a hypothesis
- Test the hypothesis
- Analyze the Results
- Draw conclusions
- Communicate Results

Using The Scientific Method
The scientific method is used to help us answer questions and solve problems. In class we used the scientific method to answer the question, "Which falls faster: A text book or a pencil?" Check out our lab report below.

RockaBrain.com Scientists
Scientific Method

Ask a Question
Which will fall faster: a text book or a pencil?

Make observations
The book feels heavy. The book looks big
The pencil feels light. The pencil looks a lot smaller than the book.

Form a hypothesis
We think that both the book and the pencil will fall at the same speed.

Test the hypothesis
To test the hypothesis we dropped both the pencil and the book from the same height at the same time, knowing that whichever one hit the ground first would be the fastest. We performed this test 3 times.

Analyze the results
In our test, both the book and the pencil hit the ground at the same time.

Draw conclusions
It's our conclusion that both the book and the pencil fall at the same speed.

*We do realize that factors such as air resistance could make one of these objects fall at a different speed, but because we were dropping them from a relatively low height, air resistance did not change our results.

As you can see from the example above, we used the scientific method to guide us into discovering that both the book and the pencil fall at the same speed. It's important to remember that the scientific method is not a list of steps that you must do in perfect order in every scientific investigation. The scientific method is only a guide to help us answer questions and solve problems. You should use your ideas and thoughts to determine which parts of the scientific method and which order is best to use in an investigation.