Question

The three questions are basically looking for an observation, asking the question and then giving the hypothesis, and then trying to prove it with simple experiments. Somebody help. Thank you!

1.State your observable events or a set of questions you are interested in understanding. For example, you ask why a flock of birds fly in a certain pattern

2. Clearly state your hypothesis that fits your observations.

3. Design a simple experiment to test your hypothesis. （namely, measurable outcome, proper control, enough sample number, randomization, and plausibility）

The following is the newly added information

1. You make an observation around your life, which can be either science-related or not. For example, you could watch a flock of birds flying in the sky in a certain pattern.

2. You then can ask a question on your observation. For example, you ask why a flock of birds fly in a certain pattern.

3. It is a time to formulate a good hypothesis based on the class discussion and your own research in the internet. In class, we discussed that a good hypothesis has to be a single sentence, which can be conceptually clear, testable by experiment, specific or precise, and must include both dependent and independent variables (cause and effect).

4. You have to propose an experiment which you can satisfy all six criteria we discussed in class, namely, measurable outcome, proper control, enough sample number, randomization, and plausibility. However, it is a proposed experiment, not an actually experiment you have to do. This means you need to clearly explain what and how you will perform to prove your hypothesis using inductive and deductive reasoning. As we discuss in class, a good experiment will result in “yes” or “no” answer. Since you will NOT perform the actual experiment, you can’t really predict the outcome. That means I will check whether you used a logical reasoning in designing your experiment to prove that your hypothesis is correct.

Answer 1

The following are basically the steps of a scientific method

1. Looking for an observation

2. Asking questions for the observed observation

3. Formulate hypothesis

4. Designing experiments

To understand this you can take an example of plant growth near you. For this one need to observe the plant growth on a daily basis.

Then you need to ask questions for understanding the growth of plant like;

· How plants are growing?

· What are the components required for plant growth?

· How the different components like soil, water, light affect the plant growth?

· How the changes in components affect the growth of a plant?

By asking such question you could get a basic understanding of the plant growth requirement and you can propose a hypothesis that can be tested through experiment.

Hypothesis could be “Plant requires soil, water and light for its growth”

Such hypothesis could be tested through experiments which consists of questionnaire without performing actual experiments

1. Make a sheet and write observations with simple questions like

· Does plant require soil –Yes /No

· Does plant require water—Yes / No

· Does plants require Light—Yes / No

· Plant in absence of soil are Live/dead—Yes/No

· Plants in absence of water are Live/dead—Yes/No

· Plants in absence of Light are Live/dead—Yes/No

· Plants with all components are growing well---Yes/No

· Plants with one less component are growing well---Yes/No

In this way you can have all the criteria required for the experiment like

· measurable outcome in the form of plant growth

· Proper control in the form of plants with all the components soil, water and light

· Sample numbers in the form of plants with and without soil, water and light

· Randomization by selecting any sample from a series of plants from your surrounding for the experiment

· Plausibility of the experiment by the results obtained.

All these will lead to the conclusion of the experiment and determination of the hypothesis whether it is true or false.