Each year, you grow cucumbers to make your own pickles. You want to increase the

Question

Each year, you grow cucumbers to make your own pickles. You want to increase the yield of the cucumbers from your plants. In the past, you have not used any type of fertilizer on your plants. This year, you have noticed advertisements for Mega1 Fertilizer that, according to the manufacturer, will produce the “largest crop you’ve ever seen!” Formulate a testable hypothesis to test the claim (5 points). Design an experiment to test your hypothesis, and include your controls (5 points). Be specific in your experimental design. Predict the experimental results that would support your hypothesis

Explanation / Answer

hypothesis : Mega1 Fertilizer will produce the “largest crop I've ever seen!”

controls : same plants, same amount of sun , same amount of water , same soil

independent variable : one thing you change . One plant gets fertilizer and one doesn't.

dependent variable : what you measure or observe = number of cucumbers grown on each plant .

The scientific method is a way to ask and answer scientific questions by making observations and doing experiments.

The scientific method is a process for experimentation that is used to explore observations and answer questions. Scientists use the scientific method to search for cause and effect relationships in nature. In other words, they design an experiment so that changes to one item cause something else to vary in a predictable way.

Just as it does for a professional scientist, the scientific method will help you to focus your science fair project question, construct a hypothesis, design, execute, and evaluate your experiment.

Steps of the Scientific Method:

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

And, in order for the scientific method to answer the question it must be about something that you can measure, preferably with a number.

2)Construct a Hypothesis: A hypothesis is an educated guess about how things work:
"If _____[I do this] _____, then _____[this]_____ will happen."

You must state your hypothesis in a way that you can easily measure, and of course, your hypothesis should be constructed in a way to help you answer your original question.

3)Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment: Your experiment tests whether 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.

4)Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion: 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 hypothesis was not supported, and in such cases they will construct a new hypothesis based on the information they learned during their experiment. This starts the entire 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.

5)Communicate Your Results: 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 at a scientific meeting. In a science fair, judges are interested in your findings regardless of whether or not they support your original hypothesis.

  Even though we show the scientific method as a series of steps, keep in mind that new information or thinking might cause a scientist to back up and repeat steps at any point during the process. A process like the scientific method that involves such backing up and repeating is called an iterative process.

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