Steps of the Scientific Method

In studying an event or finding solutions to a problem, scientists follow a series of

steps. The first step is to be aware of the problem or to pose questions. Questions
about an object or situations can be answered by any of the following methods:

1. Observation

All that can be observed within 5 senses are included in an observation.

Observing the object or situation, recalling past knowledge, reading books or

journals or conducting an investigation. Recall questions require to remember
facts which only needs low level.

2. Asking Questions

Asking questions starts with how, what, where, who, which, why, Or when.
Once you’ve made your observation, you must formulate a question about
what you have observed. Your questions should tell what is that you are trying
to discover or accomplish in your experiment. When stating your question,
you should be specific as possible.

Example:
Which of the three balls would hit the ground first?

This is just one of the questions you have formulated that can be
investigated.
 Doing Background research is important steps in science because it may
answer other questions you have and help you find your experiment before
you go on the path that Leads to nowhere or conducting an experiment that
already been done. Make sure you will use reliable resources to learn
background information such as scientific journals and online sources that are
valid and trusted our best.

3. Hypothesis
A hypothesis is an educated guess to explain the phenomena occurring based
on prior observations or a prediction of what you believe will occur. It answers
the question posed in the previous step. Hypotheses can be specific or more
general depending on the question being asked, but all hypotheses must be
testable by gathering evidence that can be measured.

After the problem has been identified, you now have to seek for the solution
of the problem or an answer to the question being generated. And this now have
something to do with the formulation of hypothesis.
It is often seen in an (If…then) statement.

If I water three plants with different sodas, then

the plants that receives Sprite will grow the
tallest.
Example 2
Situation 1. Three different sizes of balls from crumpled paper being
dropped on the ground
Questions/problem: Which of the three balls of different sizes will hit
the ground first?
Possible hypothesis: The smallest ball will hit the ground first.

4. Experimentation
After forming a hypothesis, an experiment must be set up and performed to
test the hypothesis. It is regarded as a cause – and – effect test between two
variables and has to follow fair testing. A fair test is making that an
experiment, one factor or condition (independent variable) affects another
(the dependent variable) by keeping all other conditions constant or the same.
In other words, it is a controlled experiment that includes dependent and
independent variables.
 Independent variable – is the factor or condition that
• Is change in an experiment
• Directly caused by the experimenter
• Manipulated in the experiment
• The “what you do” in the experiment.

Example:
Three paper balls of different sizes released on the ground at the same
time.
Independent variable: size of the paper balls (being the cause of the
[[dependent variable)

Dependent variable: Time the ball hits the ground (being the result of
the independent variable).

Other Example

5.

Gathering Data

After performing an experiment and collecting data, one must analyze the
data. Research experiments are usually analyzed with statistical software in
order to determine relationships among the data. In the case of a simple
experiment, one would look at the data and see how they correlate with the
change in the independent variable. It is organized into a date table and
displayed visually as a graph such as line graph and bar graph.

The data or observations gathered from an experiment are best presented in the
form of a table as shown below.
 Size of the paper Time to reach the ground (seconds)
ball (inches)
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3
3 3.4 3.4 3.6
2 2.0 2.0 2.3
1 1.5 1.5 1.0

Presenting the data in table form is easy to read because of its organized
presentation.

6. Conclusion

A conclusion is a statement about the results of the experiment. It could be

a statement of the pattern you observed. It could be a comparison of the
results of the experiment to the hypothesis. Not all hypothesis can be proven
correct. Sometimes, the results of the experiments contradict the hypothesis.
When this happens, the hypothesis is rejected. A new or modified hypothesis
if formulated.

7. Communicating Results

The last step in any scientific method is to communicate or share results

and conclusions with the other scientists. Scientist do this by writing an article
that is published in a scientific journal or magazine.