experimental scientific method

experimental scientific method

INTRODUCTION
Scientific inquiry is a process used to investigate the physical world. The experimental scientific method provides an organized approach for answering testable questions and confirming hypotheses. Appropriate experimental questions investigate a causal link between the independent and dependent variables. For example, how does the amount of fertilizer affect the growth in height (cm) of plants?

In this task, you will use the experimental scientific method to investigate a relevant, testable problem and communicate your findings in an organized written report. You will also design and implement a scientific experiment that investigates a topic from the life, earth, or physical sciences. The experiment must use appropriate methods, tools, technologies, and quantitative measurement units. For a list of topic ideas for possible science experiments, refer to the “Topic List” attachment. (See the note below for important details on which topics will not be accepted.)

REQUIREMENTS
Your submission must be your original work. No more than a combined total of 30% of the submission and no more than a 10% match to any one individual source can be directly quoted or closely paraphrased from sources, even if cited correctly. An originality report is provided when you submit your task that can be used as a guide.

You must use the rubric to direct the creation of your submission because it provides detailed criteria that will be used to evaluate your work. Each requirement below may be evaluated by more than one rubric aspect. The rubric aspect titles may contain hyperlinks to relevant portions of the course.

Note: The experiment must be in the natural sciences—not the computer sciences or social sciences (e.g., psychology, sociology, economics). A computer simulation may not be used for this experiment. Also, your work for Task 3 may not involve experimenting on living vertebrate animals. These animals are classified as having a backbone, and they include the categories fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Examples of vertebrate animals are frogs, lizards, snakes, dogs, cats, and humans. If you are not sure whether your topic is acceptable, please contact your course instructor before you conduct your experiment.

Complete a written report (suggested length of 4–8 pages) in which you do the following:

Note: You may do all of part A before your experiment is conducted. Additionally, you may do all of parts B–D after completing your investigation and collecting your data. You should submit all parts, A–F, together in one file when all work is finished.

A. Design Plan: Explain the significance of the following factors in your project design plan:

• problem statement

• relevance of your testable question 

1. Literature Review: Summarize information from two sources that relate to your topic and experiment design, hypothesis formation, or data analysis (published work(s) or works by other students) or provide the foundation for this experiment. 

2. In an experimental design, do the following: 

a. Experimental Design Steps: Describe the steps in the experimental procedure, including the sequence of events you will use to collect quantitative data. 

b. Reasoning: Discuss your reasoning for choosing this experimental design plan. 

c. Tools and Measurement Units: Describe the tools and measurement units that will be used to collect quantitative data. 

3. Variables: Identify and explain the dependent, independent, and controlled variables for your study.

4. Threat Reduction to Internal Validity: Explain what you will do to reduce the threats to internal validity.

5. Hypothesis: State your hypothesis, and explain how you developed it. 

B. Process of Data Collection: Explain the process of quantitative data collection, including the tools and units of measurement used as well as appropriate photographs, tables, or diagrams to clearly show the data collection process. (This section should be completed after the investigation is conducted.)

Note: This assessment requires you to submit pictures, graphics, and/or diagrams. Each file must be an attachment no larger than 30 MB in size. Diagrams must be original and may be hand-drawn or drawn using a graphics program. Do not use CAD programs because attachments will be too large. 

C. Results: Explain the results of your experiment using appropriate units of measurement as well as an appropriate graph (e.g., bar graph, line graph, pie chart) of the data collected. (This section should be completed after the investigation is conducted.)

Note: To draw the graph, you may use one or a combination of the following:

- A spreadsheet program, such as Excel (*.xls)

- A graphics program, such as Paint (*.jpeg, *.gif)

- A word-processing program, such as Word (*.rtf)

- A scanned hand-drawn graph (*.jpeg, *.gif)

D. Conclusion:

1. Confirmation of Hypothesis: Discuss a conclusion derived from whether your data confirms or refutes your hypothesis.

2. Experimental Design as Key Factor: Explain why experimental design is a key factor in the success of scientific inquiry.

3. Evaluation of Validity: Discuss how replication of an experiment validates the data collected from the experiment.

E. Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.