Monday, May 5, 2008

The Scientific Method

From sciencebuddies.org:
The scientific method is a process for experimentation that is used to explore observations and answer questions. Scientists use the scientific method to search for cause and effect relationships in nature. In other words, they design an experiment so that changes to one item cause something else to vary in a predictable way.

The process itself goes like this:

1. Ask a question
2. Do the research
3. Construct your hypothesis
4. Experiment
5. State your conclusion

However, it's not exactly that simple. How do you do research? How do you test your hypothesis? What if your experiment's results don't support your hypothesis, is that OK? There's more reading to do, and these sites will answer those questions and more: