The fourth step in the scientific method is

The scientific method's 4th step is to conduct experiments and test your hypothesis. After that, you do the 5th and last step: draw conclusions based on the results of your experiments.

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The scientific method is a process for experimentation that is used to explore observations and answer questions.

Do all scientists follow the scientific method exactly? No. Some areas of science can be more easily tested than others. For example, scientists studying how stars change as they age or how dinosaurs digested their food cannot fast-forward a star's life by a million years or run medical exams on feeding dinosaurs to test their hypotheses. When direct experimentation is not possible, scientists modify the scientific method. But even when modified, the goal (and many of the steps) remains the same: to discover cause and effect relationships by asking questions, carefully gathering and examining the evidence, and seeing if all the available information can be combined into a logical answer. New information or thinking might also cause a scientist to back up and repeat steps at any point during the process. Understanding the steps of the scientific method will help you focus your scientific question and work through your observations and data to answer the question as well as possible.

The interactive diagram below may help you understand the scientific method and how it is applied to an experiment. You can click on parts of the diagram to learn more. Use the "return to top" button

The scientific method starts when you ask a question about something that you observe: How, What, When, Who, Which, Why, or Where?

For a science fair project some teachers require that the question be something you can measure, preferably with a number.

For detailed help with this step, use these resources:

• Your Question
• Laboratory Notebook

A hypothesis is an educated guess about how things work. It is an attempt to answer your question with an explanation that can be tested. A good hypothesis allows you to then make a prediction:
"If _____[I do this] _____, then _____[this]_____ will happen."

State both your hypothesis and the resulting prediction you will be testing. Predictions must be easy to measure.

For detailed help with this step, use these resources:

Your experiment tests whether your prediction is accurate and thus your hypothesis is supported or not. It is important for your experiment to be a fair test. You conduct a fair test by making sure that you change only one factor at a time while keeping all other conditions the same.

You should also repeat your experiments several times to make sure that the first results weren't just an accident.

For detailed help with this step, use these resources:

• Experimental Procedure
• Materials List
• Conducting an Experiment

Once your experiment is complete, you collect your measurements and analyze them to see if they support your hypothesis or not.

Scientists often find that their predictions were not accurate and their hypothesis was not supported, and in such cases they will communicate the results of their experiment and then go back and construct a new hypothesis and prediction based on the information they learned during their experiment. This starts much of the process of the scientific method over again. Even if they find that their hypothesis was supported, they may want to test it again in a new way.

For detailed help with this step, use these resources:

• Data Analysis & Graphs
• Conclusions

To complete your science fair project you will communicate your results to others in a final report and/or a display board. Professional scientists do almost exactly the same thing by publishing their final report in a scientific journal or by presenting their results on a poster or during a talk at a scientific meeting. In a science fair, judges are interested in your findings regardless of whether or not they support your original hypothesis.

For detailed help with this step, use these resources:

• Final Report
• Abstract
• Display Board
• Science Fair Judging

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the six steps of the scientific method?

The six steps of the scientific method include: 1) asking a question about something you observe, 2) doing background research to learn what is already known about the topic, 3) constructing a hypothesis, 4) experimenting to test the hypothesis, 5) analyzing the data from the experiment and drawing conclusions, and 6) communicating the results to others.

What is a scientific method example?

A simple example of the scientific method is:

• Ask a Question: Why does Greenland look so large on a map?
• Background Research: Learn that Greenland is a quarter the size of the United States in land mass. Also learn that Mercator projection maps are made by transferring the images from a sphere to a sheet of paper wrapped around the sphere in a cylinder.
• Hypothesis: If I make a Mercator projection map, then the items in the middle of the map will look their true size and the items at the poles will look larger than they really are.
• Experiment: Use a sphere with 1-inch by 1-inch squares at each pole and the equator to make a Mercator projection map. Measure the squares on the Mercator projection map.
• Analyze Data and Make Conclusions: The middle-of-the-map squares average 1 inch per side while the squares at the poles average 3 inches per side. In conclusion, the projection process used to make Mercator projection maps creates distortion at the poles, but not at the equator. This is why Greenland, which is close to the North Pole, looks larger than it is.
• Communicate: Make a video, write a report, or give a presentation to educate others about the experiment.

Who invented the scientific method?

The scientific method was not invented by any one person, but is the outcome of centuries of debate about how best to find out how the natural world works. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle was among the first known people to promote that observation and reasoning must be applied to figure out how nature works. The Arab Muslim mathematician and scientist Hasan Ibn al-Haytham (known in the western world as Alhazen) is often cited as the first person to write about the importance of experimentation. Since then, a large number of scientists have written about how science should ideally be conducted and contributed to our modern understanding of the scientific method. Those scientists include Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, John Hume, and John Stuart Mill. Scientists today continue to evolve and refine the scientific method as they explore new techniques and new areas of science.

Do scientists actually use the scientific method?

Scientists do use the scientific method, but not always exactly as laid out in the organized steps taught in the classroom. Just like a chef might make a few changes to a recipe because of the ingredients at hand, a scientist may modify the scientific method by skipping steps, jumping back and forth between steps, or repeating a subset of the steps because he or she is dealing with imperfect real-world conditions. But scientists always strive to keep to the core principles of the scientific method by using observations, experiments, and data to support or reject explanations of how a phenomenon works. While experimenting is considered the best way to test explanations, there are areas of science, like astronomy, where this is not always possible.

Hey guys! Welcome to this Mometrix video on the scientific method.

Before we dive into the what, let’s first, talk about the why. Why do we need the scientific method?

Why Do We Need the Scientific Method?

Well, there are numerous reasons why there should be a method behind why we do anything!

There needs to be consistency, there needs to be a logical flow, there ought to be consensus, and the experiment must be able to be replicated. If everyone were to just do their own thing, then there would inevitably be fabricated scientific research posing as facts, lacking any consistency.

Scientific Method Steps

1. Observe

The first step in the scientific process is to make an observation. All scientific investigations start because someone observed something that happened, and it stirred up their curiosity. For example, Isaac Newton observed and experienced an apple falling from its tree. It actually hit him on the head (at least, so the story goes). This observation eventually led him to ask questions.

2. Ask Questions

This leads us to the next step in the scientific process: ask a question. Questions help us hone in on the information that is actually worth investigation. A question Isaac Newton probably asked might have been “why do things always fall to the ground, and not go up?” Naturally, questions beg for an answer, and this takes us to our third step.

3. Make a Hypothesis

Propose an answer by developing a hypothesis. Generally, a hypothesis is defined as predicting an answer based on things that you already know, or an educated guess. With our apple falling from a tree problem, Isaac Newton probably had some experience that allowed him to formulate a hypothesis. Perhaps he had thrown a ball before and picked up on the fact that the ball generally goes in the direction that it is thrown due to the direction of the force. So, when it comes to formulating a hypothesis, you start with what you know.

Using Deductive Reasoning

When working to formulate your hypothesis, you ought to use deductive reasoning. This generally takes the form of an “if-then“ statement, where you move from a general truth to a specific. Something that is crucial, and must be noticed about an if-then statement is that 1) it is testable, and 2) it is refutable. Your hypothesis must contain these two qualities, or else it does not follow the scientific method.

4. Conduct Experiments

The fourth step in the scientific method is to conduct an experiment. This is the step where you test your hypothesis. When testing your hypothesis, the experiment must be controlled. You must control every single variable, so that you are able to study a single variable. This is where the terms independent and dependent variable come in to play. The independent variables are the variables that are controlled by the researcher or experimenter. The dependent variable is the variable that is left untouched by the experimenter and is observed and measured for any change.

The other thing that is crucial when controlling the experiment is having a control group and an experimental group. This allows for the researcher to be sure that his results are consistent, and not based on chance.

5. Draw a Conclusion

The fifth and last step in the scientific method is to observe your data and draw a conclusion. When analyzing the data collectively, you will have collected qualitative and quantitative data.

Qualitative data is data that represents information about qualities. For example, the color of a liquid, the smell of a substance, or maybe the softness of skin. These are all examples of qualitative data.

Quantitative data, on the other hand, is data that can be measured numerically. For example, the number of lashes on your eyelid, the height of a tree, or perhaps the time it takes for you to run a mile. These are all examples of quantitative data, or data that can be quantified.

As you analyze your data, you have to decide if the data you collected proves or disproves your hypothesis. This is where you draw your conclusion. The conclusion of your experimentation should answer your original question.

Thanks for watching, guys! I hope that this video gave you some clarity and allows you to walk away knowing more than you did when you started.

See you guys next time!