The Scientific Method

Scientific Method pg.1

The Scientific Method

Scientific Method pg.2

The scenario for this case study is that if one places a plant near a window that after a while the plant grows or leans toward the window. The question is, have you ever wondered why the plant grows toward the window? My hypothesis is that plants respond to the light which they need to make their food. If this is true that plants respond to light I will grow three plants under a light then I would see a difference or change in the soil nutrients, leaf color, number of leaves, length of the stem, number of blossoms, and direction the plant is growing or leaning. The results were that there was slightly more nitrogen in the soil of each plant at the end of the experiment, the leaves of two plants stayed green while the leaves of the third plant turned yellow, then brown; two of the plants gained one leaf each while the third plant lost four leaves, the stems grew 1.1, 1.4, and 0.2 cm, respectively, none of the plants formed any new flowers, and two of the plants grew straight up while the third plant started out straight up, but ended up limply trailing over the side of the pot. The results support my hypothesis that plants respond to the light because there was a change in all the plants whether it was good or bad. The new question is, is there enough sunlight to see a difference or change for all three plants?

An example of how I used scientific method in a real-life situation is that I tested to see if using tanning beds in teens, two to three times a week will cause skin cancer. In this case the hypothesis, I believe that using tanning beds in your teens will increase the risk of skin cancer. In order to test my hypothesis I had to have controlled testing methods. For instance; I had a set amount of people to test the tan on that would show some consistence if any in the results. I ask three teenage girls and three teenage guys to use the tanning bed two times a week for their entire four years in high school. This study took years to finish conducting because the end results of cancer could possibly show up till later in their lives. However, I ask these six people to use the same tanning bed, the 242, for twenty minutes every two times a week they go tanning. They all had to go to the same tanning salon. These were controlled variables that would help benefit in the end results. Let’s say after those four years and around the age that these then young adults grew into mature twenty five year olds would I see what type of results I got from my experiment. Now that I tested my hypothesis, I now check and determine my results. Let’s say after those nine years two out of the three girls were diagnosed with melanoma and none of the boys had any

...