Science Homework Help

Sample Myths for Reference

The following are examples of myths you can test in a physics lab or in your own kitchen for that matter. You do not have to choose from this list, but it is a place to draw ideas from or stimulate the kinds of myths that you might be curious about yourself.

1. How many balloons would it take to lift a house?

2. Does breakfast cereal have real iron in it?

3. Does soda really rot tooth enamel?

4. Is there really a correlation between the number of hours of sleep you get and memory?

5. Can you really pull a table cloth and keep the plates and silverware intact? If so, at what rate of acceleration must you swipe the cloth to be safe?

6. Do all objects really fall at the same rate? What if they are on an incline? How does friction/slope/angle affect the rate?

7. How does shape and mass affect drag force?

8. Can you really make an electric motor from a piece of wire, a magnet, and a battery?

9. Can you really light an LED with a potato? A lemon?

10. Can you make flames dance to music?

Now it’s your turn. What are you curious about? What can you explore that won’t set you or the college on fire? Write three new possibilities below.

1.

2.

3.

Process

1. Picking a Question: Given the options above, both those that were given and the ones you invented, you and your partner will pick a question you feel drawn to explore in this project.

2. Hypothesis: Once you have picked a question you will create a clear and well-developed hypothesis or prediction for the outcome of your experiment. Once you have developed a clear question and hypothesis you will be able to move on to the experimental design step.

3. Experimental design: The first key to experimental design is to understand the different types of variables that one encounters in an experiment.

Independent variables (IV): These are the factors or conditions that you manipulate in an experiment. Your hypothesis is that this variable causes a direct effect on the dependent variable.

Dependent variables (DV): These are the factors that you observe or measure. As you vary your independent variable you watch what happens to your dependent variable.

Extraneous variable: An extraneous variable is any extra factor that may influence the outcome of an experiment, even though it is not the focus of the experiment. Ideally, these variables won’t affect the conclusions drawn from the results as a careful experimental design should equally spread influence across your test conditions and stimuli. Nevertheless, extraneous variables should always be considered and controlled when possible as they may introduce unwanted variation in your data.

Control variables: Are extraneous variables that you manage to keep constant or controlled for during the course of the experiment, as they may have an effect on your dependent variables as well.

Question: In your experiment, what will be your independent variable(s)?

Question: In your experiment, what will be your dependent variable(s)?

Question: In your experiment, what variables will you control(s)?

Procedure: In order to conduct your experiment, you will need a clear procedure. It should cover every aspect of the experiment and leave nothing to the imagination. The yardstick for a good procedure—would your little brother or sister be able to follow these directions and be able complete the experiment?

Materials: Now that you have a procedure, you should have a pretty good idea about exactly what you need to complete your experiment. Some of these items you will be able to bring from home. Some might be here in the physics stockroom. And some might need to be ordered. Please list your materials below in the categories they belong to.

Materials I can bring from home:

Materials that are in the physics stockroom:

Materials that need to be ordered:

Now that you know the variables you will be measuring create a table below that you will use to record the data that you take in your experiment. This data will probably need to be quantitative (as opposed to be qualitative). Meaning made of numbers. This is so that you can graph or otherwise visually represent your data during the analysis section of the experiment. Create the tables(s) in the space below.

4. Data Analysis: In this section of the experiment, you will design some visual representation of your data. It could be a graph, chart, or infographic. Sometimes you will need more than one visual representation to describe your data. Use whatever software is convenient (excel, google spreadsheet, infographic software, etc). These graphs will be included in your final report.

5. Conclusions: Given your data and analysis is your myth (question) confirmed or busted? Obviously, you will not be able to answer this question until the experiment is completed.