Scientific Method Practice printable pdf download

Scientific Method Practice

Name:_________________

Read the following paragraph and indentify the parts of the scientific method:

A pharmaceutical company wanted to test a new drug developed to lesson the effects of

the common cold. To test this drug, scientists tested fifty volunteers, each of whom was

suffering the effects of a cold. Twenty-five of the people were given the drug, while the

other twenty five were given a placebo, a sugar pill. None of the participants knew who was

which pill. All participants received a pill at 8:00 a.m. daily for the first three days of the

study. All participants lived in the same environment, with the same climate, eating the

same diet, and having the same level of activity. The severity of the cold, hence the

effectiveness of the pill, was determined by the number of tissues each person used

within a twenty-four hour period. At the end of a seven-day period it was concluded that

those with the sugar pill had their symptoms disappear as well as those who had taken the

new wonder drug. The executive committee decided to produce the drug anyway thinking

that the public would do anything to relieve the symptoms of a cold.

1. State the Problem: _______________________________________________

2. Hypothesis: ____________________________________________________

3. Independent Variable: ____________________________________________

4. Dependent Variable: _____________________________________________

5. Control: ______________________________________________________

6. Data: ________________________________________________________

7. Is this data qualitative or quantitative? ______________________________

8. Conclusion: ___________________________________________________

Scientific Method Practice