Lab 1: Using the Scientific Method Worksheet
At a local town meeting, one of your neighbors complains that anearby residence is killing his flowers because of the chemicals heuses to wash his cars. He claims that the soap runs into a streamthat flows very close to his flower beds. As an inquiring studentof science, you wonder whether soap can truly affect flowergrowth.
Based on the observation given to you, use the followingquestions to explain how you would set up your experiment andanalyze your results.
1.      State your hypothesis.Remember that a hypothesis must be specific and testable. Forexample, stating that detergents are bad is not a good hypothesis(“Bad†is a generic term, it would be better to use a metric thatis measurable).
2.      Explain how you would setup your control and treatment groups. What would be the samebetween the groups and what would be different? What species wouldyou use for each group and how many plants total would you use?
3.      How would you collectyour data for your experiment? What tools and units of measurementwould you use? How often would you collect data and would you usethe same methodology for both your treatment and control groups? Bespecific in your answers.
In every experiment, there are some unintentional differencesbetween the control and treatment groups. These are called sourcesof error. If these sources of error can be corrected we call themavoidable sources of error. An example of an avoidable source oferror may be the amount of water provided to the plant. We canavoid this error by watering the plants in each group, the sameamount at the same time of the day.
4. List some possible sources of avoidable and unavoidable errorin your fertilizer experiment that were provided to you asexamples.
5..      Explain the differencebetween a theory and a hypothesis.
6.      Explain the differencebetween the ‘everyday’ use of the word theory and the definition ofa scientific theory.
7.      Why is it important toeducate people on the true definition of “theory�
