Is There a Clearly Defined Problem/Question?

Name: Date:

Design Your Own Experiment

In this project, you will be designing and carrying out your own experiment. You will work like a scientist using the scientific method. Make some observations about the living world over the next few days and use this to develop a question you would like answered. Do some background research about the question and develop your hypothesis. Consider how you would set up an experiment to test the question; remember to include an experimental and control group and identify your manipulated (independent) and responding (dependent) variables, control and constants. Keep in mind the materials available to you and the time constraints – your experiment should run for 1-2 weeks. As you are planning, consider the following:

 Is there a clearly defined problem/question?

 Is the problem/question “High Quality”? If not, can it be made into a more challenging question?

 Is the hypothesis predictive/phrased in a way that it can be tested? Ex. If nitrogen is needed for chlorophyll production, then plants given fertilizer with a high nitrogen concentration will be greener than plants given no fertilizer.

 Is the experiment practical? Can it be done either in the classroom setting or on your own?

 Is there an experimental and control group? Are all constants accounted for? Is the sample size large enough? Does the experiment run for a long enough period of time?

 Is there a clearly identified outcome that will be measured? Is the data objective or subjective?

 How will the success of the experiment be measured? Possible organisms to utilize in the experiment:

Organisms that I can provide, or that we can grow.

A. Bacteria – can be grown in culture

B. Mold – slime molds, can be grown on foods

C. Planarians - flatworms

D. Plants – we have some seeds

E. Water Bears/Tardigrades – possibly if I can order these very small organisms (1 mm at most)

F. Humans - very difficult to study for many reasons

Organisms that you could use for purchase:

A. Fish – feeder fish are cheap, goldfish survive sufficiently without a filter system

B. Plants- any plants you might want to use that we don’t have, but keep in mind that some plants grow very slowly

C. Animals - be sure to check with me, please no mammals (allergies, smell)

*Hint: Everything is more complex in reality than on paper. Please take the planning of your experiment seriously.