Your teacher has given you the following assignment: Investigate the impact on plant growth of adding various amounts of fertilizer to potted plants. Think about what you would need to do to be certain that the fertilizer was having the impact on the plant growth. Then answer the items below.

1. Place a Y besides items that would be part of your plan to investigate plant height and fertilizer. Place a N besides items that will not help you investigate this particular connection.

a. __ Put one plant in a sunny windowsill and one in a dark corner.b. __ Give plants the same amounts of water.c. __ Give different plants different amounts of fertilizer without keeping track of

which plant got extra fertilizer.d. __ Use some new plants from seeds and some old plants that have been growing

for months.e. __ Start with plants that are the same size.f. __ Keep all plants in a similar location.g. __ Carefully note amounts of fertilizer each plant is given.h. __ Keep one plant fertilized but with no water.

2. Name at least five tools or supplies will you need to perform this experiment

The Way Science Works

I. How Science Works

A. The ________________ is a way to solve problems scientific method

B. Scientific Method Steps

1. Observe

2. Ask a Question

3. Research/Collect Data

4. Form a Hy????????Hypothesis

a. Hypothesis - A possible answer

5. Experiment (test hypothesis)

6. Draw conclusion

II. The experiment

a. Factors that can change

A. Variable

1. What is a variable?

2. What are the two types of variables?

3. What is the difference between the two types of variables?

b. Independent & Dependent

a. Independent variable – variable that is changed by the scientist – plot on the x-axis

b. Dependent variable – variable changes as the independent variable changes

– plot on the y-axis

B. Experiments also contain:

1. Control – Standard of comparison

2. Constant – Does not change in an experiment

C. Graphing tips

4. Give your graph a title. The name format should be “X vs Y”

3. Draw a “best fit line”….eyeball it!

2. Number and label the X and Y axis. Don’t forget units

1. Decide your scale. Spread the scale out as much as possible

Close your notebook

Observation Ask a Question

Research and collect

data

Form hypothesis Experiment Draw

Conclusion

1. Ask a question 4. Observation2. Draw Conclusion 5. Research and collect data3. Form hypothesis 6. Experiment

Classwork

What you need: Notebook paperTextbook

Make your paper look like this:Definition

To me, it’s like…

Picture

My Definition

The Scientific Method