Scientific Method

Designing simple and award winning science projects and experiments related to plant and soil science is indeed a great way for students to learn about agricultural science in an interactive manner.

When you want to move further and develop an idea into a full science fair project there are a variety of things to keep in mind and those will help ensure your project follows a process called the Scientific Method. The Scientific Method assists scientists and researchers to create realistic investigations that attribute well supported evidence.

Following steps will guide you to create great science fair projects of your own. Before going to details of those steps, lets listen to a song which explain all the steps coming under scientific method in general.
Source: Scientific method song

 

Steps of the Scientific Method

1. Ask a Question

As you heard in the song correct science fair project starts with a question as it follow the scientific method. This question is based on an observation you have made or a particular topic that interests you.

Think what you hope to discover during your investigation, what question would you like to answer?

Your question needs to be about something you can measure or quantify and will typically start with words such as what, when, where, how or why.

2. Background Research

To get a background survey or research you can talk to your science teacher and use resources such as books and the web to perform background research on your question.

Gathering information will help prepare you to jump in to the next step in the Scientific Method, the Hypothesis.

3. Developing Hypothesis

By using your background research as well as current knowledge, make an educated guess that answers your research question.

The hypothesis you develop should be a simple statement that expresses what you think will happen as a result of the experiment.

4. Conducting an Experiment

Under this step you have to create a step by step protocol and conduct an experiment that tests your hypothesis. The experiment should be a fair test that changes only one variable at a time while keeping everything else the same. Repeat the experiment a number of times to ensure your original results weren’t an accident. This simple repetition is known as Replication in scientific jargon.

5. Data Collection

Under this step, data is collected and recorded the progress of the experiment. Record your results with detailed measurements, descriptions through correct observations in the form of record sheet, notes, and photos.

6. Making Observations

Describe the observations you made during your experiment. This should include information that could have affected your results such as errors, environmental factors, and unexpected things.

7. Draw Conclusions

Analyze the data you collected and summarize your results in written form (Tables, graphs, and pictures).

Use your analysis to answer your original question, do the results of your experiment support or oppose your hypothesis?