Have a look at the following terms and see if you know what they mean. Then check your answers below.
Experiment - A series of processes that are carried out to support or disprove a hypothesis.
Test - A component of an experiment that defines the hypothesis, materials, procedures and collection methods.
Trial - The number of times you carry out a test.
Hypothesis - The educated guess you make at the beginning of a trial and try to answer, by asking the following questions:
- What you do you already know?
- What do you think the answer is?
- What do you think will happen and why?
Data - The record of what occurs throughout the test.
Constants - The elements that you keep the same throughout the test.
Independant variables - The elements that you change throughout the test.
Dependant variables - The elements that change because you change the independent variables.
Procedure - The steps you follow to carry out the test and conduct the experiment.
Materials - The list of resources you need to do the test.
Results - The outcome of carrying out the procedure. Results must be collected and written down on some type of data collection form.
Conclusion - The final statement that reviews the experiment by:
- Showing or proving the results of the test.
- Deciding whether the hypothesis was correct or incorrect.
- Analysing whether the test was valid, i.e. if the test was repeated would the same conclusions be reached?
- Looking at how can the test be improved, i.e. what would you do differently next time?
