Scientific method

SCIENTIFIC METHOD Pepi Jaramillo Romero
Dpto. Física y Química
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Subject Physics and Chemistry
Course/Level 3º ESO
Primary Learning Objective Students will select, transfer, and use data and principles to complete a problem or task with a minimum of direction.
Subject Content 1. What does a scientist look like?
2. Scientific method.
3. Making measurements.
3.1. Errors in measurements.
4. The Metric System (SI).
4.1. Prefixes.
5. Scientific notation.
6. Conversion factors.
Language Content /
Communication
Vocabulary Question, research, hypothesis, observation, experiment, analysis, conclusion, test, result, reject, admit, theory, law,
metre, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, candela, scale, balance, thermometer, funnel, beaker, power of ten,
mercury , brain, polluted, sample, researcher, type, study, scientist, parts-per-million, database, average, neurotoxic,
safely, chart, mass, time, length, amount of matter, luminous, etc
Structures Routines: Have you ever been in a lab? Do you know how a scientist works? Do you know any scientist? Do you like to do
an experiment? Have you ever done any one?
Contents: Conditionals, present, future, comparatives.
Classroom management: Take out your notebook/recorder/pen, write down the following sentence, right! / you're right,
well done! / very well! / good job , etc.
Discourse type Exposition, description, argument.
Language skills Writing, reading, speaking and listening
Activities The presentation includes differents activities with an explanation in order to the students answer a question or solve a problem, make
observations and collect data, and draw a conclusion as to the answer to the question or problem.
LESSON PLAN

SCIENTIFIC METHOD Pepi Jaramillo Romero
METHODOLOGY
Organization and class distribution / timing The number of sessions considered to develop the contents on this unit are at least 8 sessions of 50 minutes each one (+ 2 week final Project)
It’s very important to point out that the methodology will be active and participatory in order to facilitate both individual and group learning. For that, teacher
observation is very important during student's work.
Key Competences Language proficiency Know, acquire and apply the vocabulary of the subject.
Exercising a comprehensive reading of texts related to the topic.
Mathematical Competence Distinguish between quantities and units of measure.
Use the equivalences between different units.
Solve math problems involving measures.
Make calculus with the scientific notation (powers of ten) to write quantities.
Make a conversion factor using any unit, even with non SI units like litre, inch, etc.
Digital competence and treatment of
information
I use PDI to explain content and implementation of webquest by students.
Make the online activities.
Social and civic competences Fostering respect between and other values like cooperation, coeducation when they work in groups.
Autonomy and personal initiative To be autonomous for individual activities.
Evaluation Acquired content knowledge Identify steps within the scientific process.
Students will select, transfer, and use data and principles to complete a problem or task with a minimum of
direction.
Use instruments of measure to measure different quantities
Observe the environment and describe the things that occur.
Formulate hypotheses in order to explain things which happen.
Explain how a hypothesis explains the things.
Write the measurements using the SI base units.
Transform a non SI base unit measure to a SI base unit measure using conversion factors.
Identify and distinguish basic and derived units of measure and relate them with the physical quantities that they
represent.
Make calculus with the scientific notation (powers of ten) to write quantities.
Make a conversion factor using any unit, even with non SI units like litre, inch, etc..
Instruments The unit will be evaluated daily with:
Individual participation in classroom activities and homework.
Works in groups.
Notebook.
Behaviour.
Tests.
Glossary.
Conceptual maps
Final Project.

1. What does a scientist look like?
2. Scientific method.
3. Making measurements.
3.1. Errors in measurements.
4. The Metric System (SI).
4.1. Prefixes.
5. Scientific notation.
6. Conversion factors.
Pepi Jaramillo Romero
OUTLINE
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

1. WHAT DOES A SCIENTIST LOOK LIKE?
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Scientist?
 Sponge Bob
Square Pants
 Burger Flipper

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Scientist?
 Stephen Hillenburg
Marine Biologist
 Sponge Bob’s
Creator

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Scientist?
 Pablo Alborán
 Spanish musician,
singer, and
songwriter

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Scientist?
 Stephen Hawking
 Motor neurone disease
 Uses a motorized
wheelchair, and a
computerized speech-
synthesizer
 Developed several
theories about the
nature and origins of our
universe

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Scientist?
 Iker Casillas
 The best goalkeeper

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Scientist?
 Ellen Ochoa
 Astronaut
 First Hispanic-American
Woman in Space

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Anyone Can Be a Scientist!
 Will it be you?
 Have you ever been in a lab?
 Do you know how a scientist
works?
 Do you know any scientist?
 Do you like to do an
experiment?
 Have you ever done any one?

2. SCIENTIFIC METHOD
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
The Scientific Method is a general pattern followed by scientists when
conducting an experiment.
Video about Newton and the scientific method
Discussion.

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
The Scientific Method involves a series of steps that
are used to investigate a natural occurrence.
We shall take a closer
look at these steps and
the terminology you will
need to understand
before you start a
science project.

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Observe
Question
Hypothesis
Experiment
Results/Conclusion
The Scientific Method’s steps are:

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Observe
You observe a topic that can generate
questions for further research.

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Question
You ask a question about what is
being observed. State the problem or
question.

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Hypothesis
You make an educated guess on what
you think the outcome of the
experiment, or the answer to your
question will be.

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
You will develop and follow a
procedure to test your hypothesis.
The outcome must be measureable.
Experiment

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Independent Variable- the variable that is changed in an
experiment. Factor being manipulated.
Dependent Variable- What is observed during the experiment;
changes as a result. Factor Which Responds - the one you
measure
Constants or Controls- Changing one factor and observing its
effect on another while keeping all other factors constant.
Factors that are held constant.
Experiment
What are the variables in an experiment?

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
You will record the results of your
experiment, and repeat the experiment if
need be. You will state if your hypothesis was
accepted or not and explain your results.
Results/Conclusion

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Activity 2.1:
Online activity The Scientific Method
Activity 2.2:
“The Scientific method in everyday life”
This rap songs teaches all the steps of the scientific method for kids, in
addition to some history of the method.
1. Listen to Flocabulary’s scientific method song. Ask students to pay
particular attention to the hook, which lays out the steps of the scientific
method.
2. Review the scientific method steps as a class. When the song is complete
you can click on lyrics to learn more.
3. Challenge Questions.
4. Interactive Lyrics.
5. Fill in the Blanks.
Activities

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
 Will the temperature of ice water change if you add salt, or
sugar?
 Will the angle of a ramp have an affect on how far a marble
will roll?
 How does the amount of sunlight affect the growth of bread
mold?
 How does color influence people's food choices?
 How is brand name related to the absorbency of paper towels?
 How does age affect a person's reaction time?
Challenge
Students design an
experiment with one of the
following questions.

Measurement is the process of determining the
quantity of a physical magnitude by comparing it
with a certain quantity of the same physical
magnitude called unit.
We must express a magnitude with a number or quantity + a unit
Examples:
12 g 45 min 90 km/h 10 m2
Quantity unit
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3. MAKING MEASUREMENTS

We can measure a physical magnitude with
instruments of measure. They are characterized by a
precision and accuracy.
PRECISION
The ability of a measurement
to be consistently reproduced
and the number of significant
digits to which a value has
been reliably measured.
Precision is how close the
measured values are to each
other.
ACCURACY
The ability of a measuring
instrument to give responses
close to a true value. is how
close a measured value is to
the actual (true) value.
The goal of any instrument is to have high accuracy (sensor matching reality as close as
possible) and to have a high precision (being able to consistently replicate results and to
measure with as many significant digits as appropriately possible). Instruments need to be
calibrated in order that they sustain high accuracy and high precision.
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

They mean slightly different things!
Low Accuracy
High Precision
High Accuracy
Low Precision
High Accuracy
High Precision
So, if you are playing soccer and you always hit the left goal
post instead of scoring, then you are not accurate, but
you are precise!
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

My watch can measure seconds, so it’s less
precise than Big Ben.
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Measuring instruments are not exact!
Error?
No ... you didn't measure it wrong ... this is
about accuracy.
Degree of Accuracy
Accuracy depends on the instrument you are
measuring with. But as a general rule:
The degree of accuracy is half a unit each side of the
unit of measure
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
3.1. ERRORS IN MEASUREMENTS

When your instrument measures in "1"s then any value between 6½
and 7½ is measured as "7"
When your instrument measures in "2"s then any value between 7 and 9
is measured as "8"
We can show the error using the "Plus or Minus" sign: ±
7 ±0.5
The error is ±0.5
8 ±1
The error is ±1
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Absolute, Relative and Percentage Error
The Absolute Error is the difference between the actual and measured value
But ... when measuring we don't know the actual value! So we use the maximum
possible error.
What happened to the ± ... ? Well, we just want the size (the absolute value) of
the difference.
The Relative Error is the Absolute Error divided by the actual measurement.
We don't know the actual measurement, so the best we can do is use the
measured value:
Relative Error =
Absolute Error
Measured Value
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Activities
Activity 3.1:
Online examples about errors
Activity 3.2:
Ten questions about errors

The digit (width of the forefinger)
In Latin finger is called digitus
Foot is the length of a
grown man's foot (first
used by the Romans)
Fathom is the
length from finger
tip to finger tip
with the arms
outstretched
Span is the width of the
hand from the thumb to the
little finger with the hand
outstretched
Cubit is the length of the
arm from the middle
finger to the elbow
By the eighteenth century, dozens of different units of measurement were commonly used
throughout the world.
Length, for example, could be measured in feet, inches, cubits, hands, palms, rods and
more. These types of measurements were generally derived from human body parts.
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
4. THE METRIC SYSTEM

The lack of common standards led to a lot of confusion and significant
inefficiencies in trade between countries. At the end of the century,
the French government sought to alleviate this problem by devising a
system of measurement that could be used throughout the world. In
1790, the French National Assembly commissioned the Academy of
Science to design a simple decimal-based system of units; the system
they devised is known as the metric system. In 1960, the metric
system was officially named the Système International d'Unités (or SI
for short) and is now used in nearly every country in the world except
the United States. The metric system is almost always used in
scientific measurement.
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

QUANTITY NAME SYMBOL
Length metre m
Mass kilogram kg
Time second s
Electric current ampere A
Temperature kelvin K
Amount of substance mole mol
Luminous intensity candela cd
The SI base units for the seven primary quantities are:
Symbols are written in lower case, except for symbols derived from the name of a
person. For example, the unit of electric current is named after André-Marie Ampère,
so its symbol is written "A", whereas the unit itself is written "ampere". The only
exception is the litre, whose original symbol "l" is unsuitably similar to the numeral
"1"; thus it is recommended that "L" be used instead.
Abbreviated symbols should not be pluralized: for example "25 kg", not "25 kgs".
Symbols do not have an appended period (.) unless at the end of a sentence.
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

QUANTITY DEFINITION
Mass Is the amount of matter in a body. Its unit in the SI is the kg.
Length Distance between two points in space. Its unit in the SI is the m.
Time Physical quantity corresponding to a phenomenon or an event that is measured with
devices such as watches and stopwatches. Its unit in the SI is the s.
Volume Tells how much space an object occupies. Its unit in the SI is the m3.
Capacity Is the amount of space that can be contained by a body. It is measured in L.
Quantities are the measurable properties of the physical bodies. Some of the most
important ones are the following:
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Weight or Mass?
Aren't "weight" and "mass" the same?
Not really.
An object has mass (say 100 kg).
An objects weight is how hard gravity is pulling on it.
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

An object's mass doesn't change (unless you remove some!), but its weight
can change.
So Why Do People Say Weight
instead of Mass?
People often use "weight" to mean "mass",
and vice versa.
Because gravity is pretty much the same
everywhere on Earth, we don't notice a
difference.
But remember … they do not mean the same
thing, and they can have different
measurements. The correct unit for weight
(force) is the Newton (=1 kg·m/s2) which is
abbreviated N.
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

"kilo, mega, giga, tera" ... ?
In the Metric System there are standard ways to talk about big and small numbers:
"kilo" for a thousand,"mega" for a million and more ...
So we used kilo in front of the word meter to make "kilometer".
And the abbreviation is "km" (k for kilo and m for meter, put together).
Some more examples:
Example: The doctor wants you to take 5 thousandths of a liter
of medicine (a thousandth is one thousand times smaller), he is
more likely to say "take 5 milliliters", or write it down as 5 mL.
Example: You put your bag on a set of scales and it shows 2000
grams, we can call that 2kilograms, or simply 2 kg.
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
4.1 PREFIXES

"kilo", "mega", "milli" etc are called "prefixes":
Prefix: a word part that can be added to the beginning of another word to
create a new word
So, using the prefix "milli" in front of "liter" creates a new word "milliliter".
Here we list the prefix for commonly used big and small numbers:
Prefix giga mega kilo hecto deca deci centi milli micro nano
Symbol G M k h da d c m µ n
Factor 109 106 103 102 101 10-1 10-2 10-3 10-6 10-9
Name billion million thousand hundred ten tenth hundredth thousandth millionth billionth
Just remember for large values (each one a thousand times bigger):
"kilo mega giga tera"
and for small values (each one a thousand times smaller):
"milli micro nano pico"
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
4.1 PREFIXES

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Activities
Activity 4.1:
Online activities about metric system
Activity 4.2:
Listening and Reading about Metric Moom
4.1 PREFIXES

In science, it is common to work with very large and very small numbers. For
example, the diameter of a red blood cell is 0.0065 cm, the distance from the
earth to the sun is 150,000,000 km, and the number of molecules in 1 g of
water is 33,400,000,000,000,000,000,000.
It gets cumbersome to work with such long numbers, so measurements such
as these are often written using a shorthand called scientific notation.
Each zero in the numbers above represents a multiple of 10. For example, the
number 100 represents 2 multiples of 10 (10 x 10 = 100). In scientific
notation, 100 can be written as 1 times 2 multiples of 10:
100 = 1 x 10 x 10 = 1 x 102 (in scientific notation)
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
5. SCIENTIFIC NOTATION

Scientific notation is a simple way to represent large numbers because
the 10's exponent (2 in the previous example) tells you how many
places to move the decimal of the coefficient (the one above) to
obtain the original number. In our example, the exponent 2 tells us to
move the decimal to the right two places to generate the original
number:
For example:
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

This shorthand can also be used with very small numbers. When scientific notation is
used with numbers less than one, the exponent on the 10 is negative, and the decimal
is moved to the left, rather than the right.
For example:
Therefore, using scientific notation, the diameter of a red blood cell is 6.5 x 10-3 cm, the
distance from the earth to the sun is 1.5 x 108 km and the number of molecules in 1 g of
water is 3.34 x 1022.
Also note that in scientific notation, the base numeral is always represented as a single
digit followed by decimals if necessary. Therefore, the number 0.0065 is always
represented as 6.5 x 10-3, never as 0.65 x 10-2 or 65 x 10-4.
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Activities
Activity 4.3:
Online activities about scientific notation
6. CONVERSION FACTORS5. SCIENTIFIC NOTATION

A conversion factor is a ratio, which is equal to 1. Multiplying a conversion
factor (because it is equal to 1) doesn’t change the magnitude of the
measurement, only the units in which it is expressed.
For example:
If you have 2 dozen eggs and want to know how many individual eggs you
have, you would set up the problem like this:
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
6. CONVERSION FACTORS

So the final step in dimensional analysis is to work the math problem
you’ve set up, canceling units along the way. In the egg example, the
“dozen eggs” in the bottom of the ratio cancels the “dozen eggs” in your
original number, leaving “eggs” as the only unit left in the problem, as
shown in the final answer, 24 eggs.
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Let’s apply these steps to a slightly more
complex problem than counting eggs…
How much money would it cost to fill a truck’s 23 gallon gas tank if gas cost
$2.87 per gallon?
Conversion factor: given the price, you can say 1 gallon = $2.87.
If you have two units at a time, you use two conversion factors. For
example, to convert 50 km/h to m/s you convert km to m and 1/ h to 1/ s:
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Activities

And now the challenge:
Convert the following measurements into SI basic units
using conversion factors:
a) 7 Gm
b) 8000 Tm
c) 27 g
d) 5 h
e) 50 cm2
f) 103 mL
g) 24 cm3
h) 72 km/h
i) 80 g/mm2
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

You can see that you don’t have to be an engineer at
NASA to need dimensional analysis. You need to convert
units in your everyday life (to budget for gas price
increases, for example) as well as in scientific
applications, like stoichiometry in chemistry and
calculating past plate motions in geology. If you know
what units you have to work with, and in what units you
want your answer to be, you don’t need to memorize a
formula. If the teams working on the Mars Climate
Orbiter had realized that they needed to go through
these steps, we would be getting weather forecasts for
Mars.
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Some Famous Unit Conversion Errors!
Story 1: On September 23, 1999 NASA lost the $125 million Mars
Climate Orbiter spacecraft after a 286-day journey to Mars.
Miscalculations due to the use of English units instead of metric
units apparently sent the craft slowly off course - 60 miles in all.
Thrusters used to help point the spacecraft had, over the course of
months, been fired incorrectly because data used to control the
wheels were calculated in incorrect units. Lockheed Martin, which
was performing the calculations, was sending thruster data in
English units (pounds) to NASA, while NASA's navigation team was
expecting metric units (Newtons).
Problem 1 - A solid rocket booster is ordered with the
specification that it is to produce a total of 10 million
pounds of thrust. If this number is mistaken for the
thrust in Newtons, by how much, in pounds, will the
thrust be in error? (1 pound = 4.5 Newtons)
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Story 2: On January 26, 2004 at Tokyo Disneyland's Space Mountain, an axle
broke on a roller coaster train mid-ride, causing it to derail. The cause was a
part being the wrong size due to a conversion of the master plans in 1995
from English units to Metric units. In 2002, new axles were mistakenly
ordered using the pre-1995 English specifications instead of the current
Metric specifications.
Problem 2 - A bolt is ordered with a thread diameter of 1.25
inches. What is this diameter in millimeters? If the order was
mistaken for 1.25 centimeters, by how many millimeters would
the bolt be in error?
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Story 3: On 23 July 1983, Air Canada Flight 143 ran completely out of fuel
about halfway through its flight from Montreal to Edmonton. Fuel loading
was miscalculated through misunderstanding of the recently adopted metric
system. For the trip, the pilot calculated a fuel requirement of 22,300
kilograms. There were 7,682 liters already in the tanks.
Problem 3 - If a liter of jet fuel has a mass of 0.803 kilograms, how
much fuel needed to be added for the trip?
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- http://sciencespot.net/Pages/classmetric.html
- http://www.edhelper.com/Science.htm
- http://www.mathsisfun.com/measure/error-
measurement.html
- http://www.mathopolis.com/questions/q.php?id=7031&sit
e=1&ref=/measure/error-
measurement.html&qs=7031_7036_7157_7160_7037_70
41_7044_7047_7052_7053
- http://panpipes.net/edit6200/
- https://www.flocabulary.com/lesson-scientific-method/
- http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-
nasa/2007/08jan_metricmoon
- Curso online “Uso de Recursos Educativos Abiertos para el
aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lenguas extranjeras
(AICLE). Edición Abril 2015. Consejería de Educación y
Cultura. Gobierno de Extremadura.

Scientific method

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