[Transcript: Introduction to the Scientific Method – Science Fair Club Video #1]

Jack:

Hello, my name is Jack, and I'm a STEM instructor at Creative Encounters with Science. This is the first of a series of videos to help you with your very own science fair project.

In review of our last science fair club meeting, we will be going over the scientific method. So first of all, what is the scientific method?

Put simply, it is the format of how experiments are set up and conducted. The scientific method will help you ensure that your project goes as smoothly as possible and that you get the best results.

So, without further ado, here is the scientific method.

Let's start with your topic. Let's say you want to do your science fair project on paper airplanes. After lots of researching and thinking, the next step is to come up with a research question or a problem that needs to be solved.

Your research question is the main question that your project is trying to answer. A good place to start would be to come up with a "who," "what," "where," "when," "why," or "how" question.

A good example of a possible research question would be: "What wing size makes a paper airplane fly the furthest?"

Now that you know some more about what you'd like to find out, you can now create your hypothesis. A hypothesis is usually an "if, then, because" sentence.

The "if" in this sentence is the independent variable, and the "then" is your dependent variable. A variable is something in your project which will change depending on how your experiment is conducted.

The independent variable is the variable that you change—it is the cause portion of your experiment. The dependent variable is the effect, and it is supposed to change as a result of your independent variable changing.

The last section of the hypothesis is the "because" statement—this is your explanation of why the effect happens or your prediction of what will happen. Your prediction and your explanation should be based on the research you did while creating your research question.

To help you understand how to structure your hypothesis, we'll use an example science fair project which was conducted by one of our instructors. Their group's experiment was to see if the amount of light a plant gets affects how it grows.

In their science class, they learned that plants need light, specifically sunlight or UV light, to make food and grow. Their research question was: "Will the amount of light a radish plant receives affect its weight and height?"

In order to answer that question, they came up with this hypothesis: If a radish plant receives more light, then it will grow taller and weigh more because plants need light for photosynthesis, which is how plants make their food.

See how they use facts and research to explain the relationship between the variables? The amount of light, which is the independent variable, is what changes, and the weight and height of the plants, or the dependent variable, is what is affected by the independent variable. Then they explain why it was affected in the "because" statement.

Now you'll need to decide how you will test your hypothesis by designing an experiment. You'll need to list all the materials and equipment you will use.

While you're conducting your experiment, you will need to outline your procedure by recording a step-by-step account of everything you did in your experiment.

Don't forget to record everything you observe in your experiment in a log or journal. This can be done on paper or in a digital document.

Even after you create your hypothesis, it's important to write down your predictions for what you think will happen next as you're experimenting. This will help you with your analysis later on.

The analysis stage is where you will evaluate all the data you collected. You'll organize your findings and identify the trends in your data, which will help you figure out the overall outcome of your project. This information will be displayed using graphs.

Finally, you'll need to write your conclusion. This includes summarizing the results of your project and explaining what they mean.

This method is how scientists conduct experiments in the real world, and it will help you make sure that you have recorded everything you could possibly need for your final presentation.

If you have any questions about the scientific method or any other component of your science fair project, please email us at ces.scifair@uoguelph.ca, and I or another member of our team will be happy to help you.

We will be releasing more videos in the next few days, so keep an eye out for those. Our club meetings will take place every other Monday in the new year, starting on January 4th.

Visit our website to sign up for our virtual science fair club on Zoom video chat, and follow our Instagram at CES Clubs to get frequent updates on all of our club initiatives.

Creative Encounters with Science is a proud member of the Actua network, and we would like to thank our parent company as well as all of their sponsors for making Science Fair Club possible.

I hope you enjoyed this video, and thank you for watching.