one um unit one is about the scientific process and thinking uh it covers uh we call GLI 31 32 and 25 our first objective or our learning Target is to list and toine each step of the scientific method in order so this leads us to the next question what is the scientific method what is it well first of all science is a way of thinking uh it's and please you have to understand it's not only just uh science the way of thinking but this is what scientists kind of go about or the process they use uh to solve problems it's sometimes uh called organized common sense because as you go through the scientific method it is really Common Sense there's a series of steps that this it you do it probably every day without even thinking about it um so which leads us to the next thing think about it uh lot of science seems a contradiction in common sense uh take for example the Earth uh you know imagine you know 200 300 years ago when they said hey you know the Earth is round well Common Sense tells you h no it's flat I mean look you you look across the Horizon you see it's flat but we actually know that the Earth is actually round we know that now today so what does that do to our notion that science is organized common sense well how about this science is more of organized curiosity and how do we organize this curiosity well we use the scientific method and all scientists do this now you know depending on what they're studying they apply the scientific method a little bit differently uh but they all try basically to follow the same series of steps and then of course what is this scientific method a plan of organizing an investigation is what it really is the scientific method involves a series of steps that are used to investigate a natural occurrence of course that's what science is is science is the study of natural uh natural things so that scientific method is the steps that we use just you know to uh solve problems uh and we we observe a nature the scientific method is here are the steps number one you got to identify a problem or a question second step is gather and use background information uh this is not always the funnest step but it's real important so that um Step number three when you formulate hypothesis you're formulating something that's you know based on background information you're not just making a guess like oh you know uh plants are green because aliens uh came down and painted them that kind of thing uh next is to uh perform an experiment to test your hypothesis number five is to collect and analyze data as you're run now a lot of books will have uh four set four the performance experiment and five together because a lot you know when you're doing the experiment and you're performing The Experiment you are also at the same time collecting and analyzing data uh they're not two separate things so much and then the last is a draw valid conclusion based on what you saw from your data and your experiment so let's look at these steps in more detail the first one problem or question you're going to develop a question or problem that can be solved through experimentation this is important um when when people come up with these problems they got to make sure that hey can I you know or question can I solve this through experimentation gather and use background information uh this is important uh in the fact that you know a lot of times scientists you know professional scientist um if they're working on a problem um a lot of times you know they're under a time constraint they want to get this you know problem solved as quickly as possible and so they'll go and do some background information get as much information as they can about their subject this saves them time and and um money in the fact that if some scientist has done the same experiment or is you know working on the same kind of thing they don't have to repeat something that the scientist says hey this doesn't work yes you know think about medicine you is a one that it comes to my mind you know we're trying to find a cure for cancer well we don't want all these scientists doing the same experiment and coming up with you know fail you know results that don't cure cancer we need them to share that information so that they say okay this doesn't work let's try something else uh and so that's uh why Gathering and using background information is so important The Next Step do you remember what the next step is Formula hypothesis this is a prediction because of uh an answer to your problem or question you know after you do some background information you know you going to have an idea what you you you think your results are going to be um then an example here is if soil temperatures rise then plant growth will increase now if you've done step two you're going to research you know the effects of soil temperature on plant growth so you're going to have an idea hopefully whether this is going to work or not and you might even see somebody else that's done it with certain types of plants and you you know for example people may have done this with u geraniums and they've tried to grow geraniums in different temper size or temp temperatures of soil and see what the results are and they they tell you and they show you that they tell you that you say hey look that's pretty cool maybe I'll do it with cactuses or I'll do it with dandelion or something like that and so you'll have an idea based on what they did will this you know what will happen what what temperature maybe the optimum for plant growth if there is one the next thing is to perform an the experiment uh you're going to develop and follow a procedure uh which includes a detail materials list um and the here is another important part the outcome must be measurable uh it's just like you don't what you don't want to be so much based on someone's opinion uh because that's hard to what we call qualify or you know a lot of this with the scientific methods you want somebody else to be able to repeat your experiment and get the same results well if it's kind of based on your opinion then you know oh you know well you know the plant was large um you know what is large um you know everybody's has a different and large might be a different so it needs to be something you can measure then you're going to collect and analyze data now like I said before this is happening at the same time as step four which is run the experiment uh now here when you collect an analyze your data U modify the procedure if needed sometimes if something's not working or something like that you may have to modify your your procedure uh to get some results um and then you're going to keep you know from those results then what you might want to do is is you know modified you know like let's say for example the growing of the plant in different uh temperatures of soil when you start out you may have extreme temperatures you know for example you may have soil that is very very hot that you keep in an oven or keep it in a very you know a warm place and it's very hot then you have like room temperature soil and then you may have soil that you keep in a freezer so we're talking about very different temperatures and as as your results you may find one partic you know one particular temperature of those extremes is growing more than the other two well then you say okay well let's limit the field now now let's maybe not go as cold and maybe not go as hot and you know start to shrink it down to to get more of a finer um pinpoint of what is the optimum temperature of the soil and you keep doing that over and over again eventually you may even change only change the soil might be by five degrees to see what is the optimum temperature specifically because if you do it way you know from extreme cold and extreme hot and in the middle you you know there's such a large gap that you really don't know the real specific Optimum temperature would be you know so if you shrink it down a little bit and get you know closer and closer and and have the um temperatures at a smaller varying degree then you're going to be able to be more accurate with your uh pinpointing which temperature is the optimal uh again you want to cons confirm these results by retesting and include tables graphs and photographs then draw valid conclusions include a statement that accepts or rejects your hypothesis uh we'll talk more about drawing conclusions uh we're going to be writing those later on in class so but just understand that you're going to draw value conclusion from um your results and you need to link it back to your hypothesis now can you remember all six steps remember one step one come up with a question or a problem step two find background information or or do your background research step three formula hypothesis step four run your experiment to test that hypothesis step five which is going to be in conjunction with step four analyze collect and analyze your data and uh the last step is to uh draw a valid conclusion