Answer:
Step 1. Make observations.
Step 2. Form a hypothesis.
Step 3. Make a prediction.
Step 4. Perform an experiment.
Step 5. Analyze the results of the experiment.
Step 6. Draw a conclusion.
Step 7. Report your results.
Step-by-step explanation:
The first step in the Scientific Method is to make objective observations. These observations are based on specific events that have already happened and can be verified by others as true or false. Step 2. Form a hypothesis.
Our observations tell us about the past or the present. As scientists, we want to be able to predict future events. We must therefore use our ability to reason.
Scientists use their knowledge of past events to develop a general principle or explanation to help predict future events. The general principle is called a hypothesis. The type of reasoning involved is called inductive reasoning (deriving a generalization from specific details).
A hypothesis should have the following characteristics:
• It should be a general principle that holds across space and time
• It should be a tentative idea
• It should agree with available observations
• It should be kept as simple as possible.
• It should be testable and potentially falsifiable. In other words, there should be a
way to show the hypothesis is false; a way to disprove the hypothesis.
Some mammals have two hind limbs would be a useless hypothesis. There is no observation that would not fit this hypothesis!
All mammals have two hind limbs is a good hypothesis. We would look throughout the world at mammals. When we find whales, which have no hind limbs, we would have shown our hypothesis to be false; we have falsified the hypothesis.
When a hypothesis involves a cause-and-effect relationship, we state our hypothesis to indicate there is no effect. A hypothesis, which asserts no effect, is called a null hypothesis. For instance, the drug Celebra does not help relieve rheumatoid arthritis.