The Scientific Method
The scientific method consists of several steps that serve as a guideline when conducting experiments.
- Ask a question
- Research
- Develop a Hypothesis
- Test your hypothesis by conducting an experiment
- Analyze your data
- Draw Conclusions
- Interpret your results
When creating your experiment there must be 2 different types of variables:
- Dependent Variable - is the variable in the experiment that stays the same
- Independent Variable - is the variable in the experiment that changes
In order to conduct a successful experiment, that isn't flawed you can only change on thing in the experiment.
When collecting data/observations, they can be catergorized into 2 types:
- Qualitative - involve using your 5 senses; sight, smell, hear, taste and touch
- Quantitative - is data that includes numbers; such as measurements and calculations
 Big, colorful and striped are just a couple of qualitative observations made about this hot air balloon. Some data can even be infered, such as the smell of fresh air or the feeling of a cool breeze blowing off from the lake. |  One, three, seven and nine would be amoung the trillions of numbers that would classify as quanitative data. This would also include different types of measurements, such as miles, inches, etc. |
