Question

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Answer 1

please help. i've already turned this in once and got a 0. this is what i wrote:

Purpose – I am babysitting for my aunt and the baby is crying. What can I do to make him happy?

Research – Search online for why babies cry and what I can do to stop it.

Hypothesis – If I give him food, he will stop crying.

Experiment – To test that he is hungry, I will feed him and see if he stops crying.

Independent variable: The food
Dependent variable: The crying
Controlled variables: I will keep everything in the exact condition as it was before feeding him. I will not touch his diaper, burp him, change the temperature of the house, or play with him

Analysis – During the experiment, he could smile and stop crying. He could refuse to eat the food or throw up the food.

Conclusion – If he stopped crying, then he was hungry. If he refused to eat or threw up, then I would have to do the same experiment, but with a different independent variable such as a new diaper.

but she said that it doesn't meet the guidelines of the scientific method; that babies cry for all reasons. please help. she's giving me another chance

Answer 2

Your experiment doesn't truly control the variables that say are controlled. It's confusing with a real-life example, but as a simple case, how do you know that while you are feeding him, he isn't changing internally (digestion -> diaper condition change!)?

Answer 3

Choosing a subject like a baby that can't be easily controlled in all its variables makes the design tough :(

Answer 4

so what should i do? :c

Answer 5

@ajprincess is waiting to help, right ;) ?

Answer 6

Hmm... must brainstorm for a minute. Science Fair was never my best subject...

Answer 7

guess not :/

Answer 8

Site is flaky today... lots of delay, refreshes, etc. = hard to work uninterrupted... :(

Answer 9

oh i thought that was just me lol

Answer 10

I am nt gud in chemistry. :( @JakeV8. I am really sorry for being unable to help u @aripotta. Hope that @Jakev8 will help u:)

Answer 11

That makes 2 of us :) I didn't even realize I had been transported into Chem until now :)

Answer 12

the example in the lesson was why the grass wasn't growing. so the hypothesis was that it might have been the pH.

Answer 13

so he conducted an experiment test the pH and growth results of grass...

Answer 14

And control for water, sun, etc., right?

Answer 15

yea. he added lime juice to the soil of the plants -_- who thinks like that?

Answer 16

lime juice is an easily available acid... amateur gardeners don't have lots of chemicals around the house (not counting fertilizers, etc)

Answer 17

well, what could be my purpose? i think when i find a purpose, i might be set

Answer 18

i just need some ideas

Answer 19

Do you drive a car? Could do something with air pressure and gas mileage...

Answer 20

i don't drive yet. well, i have a permit, but i haven't been driving because i almost hit someone and i'm scared to death i'll kill someone...

Answer 21

yikes! Be careful! Better choose another example

Answer 22

we could say why isn't the tv working?

Answer 23

and then check the wires in the back

Answer 24

or turn it on lol

Answer 25

yes, lol... it's my "instinct" on this, but I don't think the "tv not working" is the best way to go. You could force it to work, but I don't know if your teacher would like it.

Answer 26

yea i was just thinking about those danged controlled variables

Answer 27

how long would it take to perfectly cook a hot pocket in the microwave?

Answer 28

buy several hotpockets...

Answer 29

put one in for 1 minute, and go up 10 seconds for the next ones

Answer 30

and the controlled would be the microwave wattage, right?

Answer 31

i don't think my microwave is a transformer, so that'll stay the same

Answer 32

and we'll test it by temperature...

Answer 33

..would that work, or was it just another stupid idea?

Answer 34

you there? i'm going to put it into the form of what i did before, can you tell me if it looks right?

Answer 35

:)
that could work

Answer 36

omg it could?

Answer 37

the controlled things need to include same flavor hot pocket, same initial temperature, maybe others..

Answer 38

what is your hypothesis?

Answer 39

if i cook the hotpocket for 2 minutes, then it will be perfectly cooked and ready to eat

Answer 40

2 minutes is what it says on the package

Answer 41

we all know it lies though

Answer 42

oh i just thought of another controlled. the temperature it's at before it goes in

Answer 43

Ok...

how about, problem: 2 minutes of cooking produces different hot pocket goodness. This is like "at my friend's house, it's perfect, but at my house, it is still cold".

Answer 44

So, hypothesis: microwave power rating (wattage) affects hot pocket temperature after 2 minutes of cooking. In other words, more power makes a hotter hot pocket.

Answer 45

so i'd need multiple microwaves

Answer 46

with different wattages

Answer 47

you could line up a series of different power-level microwaves, have a freezer full of hot pockets (same flavor), and cook each for 2 minutes. Then measure final temperature and compare to microwave wattage.

Answer 48

yes, we're thinking the same now... :)

Answer 49

wait, what's the question we're asking? which wattage is ideal for cooking hotpockets in 2 min?

Answer 50

You could, but it would be harder. It's harder to ask a specific question like "which is best?" It is a lot easier to ask a question like "how does microwave wattage affect cooking time?" or in this case, "how does microwave wattage affect final cooked temperature?"

Answer 51

well, obviously if it's a higher wattage, it would give you a higher temperature :/

Answer 52

yeah, that's why it's easier :) You already know the answer... but this allows you to focus on the process of the scientific method better. Harder questions are much harder to set up and to control all the appropriate controlled variables :)

Answer 53

If you think it's too easy, then start over...that's fine :) ... but I strongly recommend picking something sort of straightforward. In your baby-sitting example, there were just too many things to keep track of to make it a simple scientific experiment.

Answer 54

is this a good purpose?

On the packages of HotPockets, it suggests 2 minutes of microwave time. However, 2 minutes in my microwave gives me a really cold HotPocket and 2 minutes in my friend’s microwave gives me a really hot HotPocket. How does microwave wattage affect the final cooked temperature?

Answer 55

should i mention that we have different wattages before asking the question?

Answer 56

On the packages of HotPockets, it suggests 2 minutes of microwave time. However, 2 minutes in my microwave gives me a really cold HotPocket and 2 minutes in my friend’s microwave gives me a really hot HotPocket. We looked at our microwaves and saw that we had different microwave wattage. How does the microwave wattage affect the final cooked temperature?

Answer 57

was that better?

Answer 58

and how's this hypothesis?

If I cook the HotPocket at a higher wattage, then the final temperature will be hotter.

Answer 59

Maybe :) I'm improving my thoughts as I go.

How about "all my friends love hot pockets but we find that it's difficult to get the right cooked temperature using the directions that say to cook for 2 minutes"

That way it's not quite so obvious that more power = hotter.

Answer 60

but then your same hypothesis could work... it's an effort to figure out why there is such variation among your friends' experiences with hot pocket cooking.

Answer 61

ok so you're saying go with your purpose and my hypothesis?

Answer 62

well, you can reword mine to clean it up, but rather than just compare 2 microwaves, your purpose could be more general. With lots of friends and lots of results, it wouldn't be quite as obvious right away that power was the explanation for the variation. It might help your purpose seem more realistic and not so easy or obvious.

Answer 63

ok, how about this...

purpose: i've heard from friends that the suggested 2 minutes of cooking time for a hotpocket is sometimes too long, or too short. why is that the case?

Answer 64

In real life, good questions to ask would be "is it possible pizza flavored HPs cook faster than ham-n-cheese, and perhaps the choice of flavor is the explanation?"

You would rule this out in your experiment by forcing "flavor" to be a controlled variable.

Answer 65

yes, I think that's a good purpose!!

Answer 66

especially since you could also set up an alternate experiment for that same exact purpose statement... you could use with a single microwave (control wattage) but 20 flavors. If cooked temp varied, then flavor is a factor in final temp.

Answer 67

But flavor is not the ONLY factor... your experiment of controlling flavor and varying wattage would reveal that wattage is also a factor... but again, not the only factor (since flavor matters too).

Similar experiments could be run by varying initial temperature (room temp, thawed slightly, hard frozen).

Answer 68

so what would our hypothesis be? it has to be an if...then statement, right?

Answer 69

if microwave wattage is increased, final cooking temperature after 2 minutes will be increased.

Answer 70

ok so i think it would be cooler if we bought a ton of hotpockets, so let's go with the flavor one

Answer 71

how would we word that?

Answer 72

or should i just stick with the wattage?

Answer 73

Same purpose.

Hypothesis: if I choose different flavored HPs, the final temp after cooking will vary.

You need to control wattage (single microwave), initial temp, cooking time...

You vary flavor (independent variable)

Final cooked temp is dependent variable

Answer 74

If I cook different flavored HotPockets, then the final temperature results after cooking will vary.

Answer 75

is that alright?

Answer 76

That's a good hypothesis.

Answer 77

Experiment – To test that the flavor of the HotPocket affects the final temperature, I will cook the 23 different HotPocket flavors individually in the same microwave for 2 minutes. Then, I will record the temperature of the HotPocket.

Independent variable: HotPocket flavor

Dependent variable: Temperature of HotPocket after cooking

Controlled variables: Microwave wattage; all HotPockets will be cooked in the same microwave with the same wattage. Cooking time; all HotPockets will be cooked for exactly 2 minutes. Initial HotPocket temperature; all HotPockets will be put in the freezer immediately after purchasing and temperature will be recorded before being cooked. All HotPockets will have the same initial temperature.

Answer 78

I need to get going... sorry to give you one last big burst of advice, but here goes...

It looks like you're on the right track. Your purpose sounded good, and that last hypothesis is fine, so follow the rest of the process with independent, dependent, and controlled variables (I discussed these a couple posts up), and

you just need to do the last couple of steps...

Analysis: "what might happen?"... just think about it... could be same temp for different flavors, could be different temps for different flavors

Possible conclusions will follow directly from the analysis of what might happen... if different flavors lead to the same temps, then flavor apparently doesn't matter. If they lead to different temps, then flavor matters. However, you can show your understanding by also stating that more experiments are necessary to determine if other factors also matter (as in our wattage discussion).

Much good scientific research ends with these sorts of recommendations for further topics of study.

Answer 79

your discussion of the variables was all good too... sorry, I didn't see that before I posted my last...

Answer 80

gotta run... good luck... hope this was helpful, even though it was long :)

Answer 81

wait wait!

Answer 82

Purpose – I have heard from friends that the suggested 2 minutes of cooking time for a HotPocket is sometimes too long, or too short. Why is that the case?

Research – Search online about the different flavors of HotPockets.

Hypothesis – If I cook different flavored HotPockets, then the final temperature results after cooking will vary.

Experiment – To test that the flavor of the HotPocket affects the final temperature, I will cook the 23 different HotPocket flavors individually in the same microwave for 2 minutes. Then, I will record the temperature of the HotPocket.

Independent variable: HotPocket flavor

Dependent variable: Temperature of HotPocket after cooking

Controlled variables: Microwave wattage; all HotPockets will be cooked in the same microwave with the same wattage. Cooking time; all HotPockets will be cooked for exactly 2 minutes. Initial HotPocket temperature; all HotPockets will be put in the freezer immediately after purchasing and temperature will be recorded before being cooked. All HotPockets will have the same initial temperature.

Analysis – After recording all the final temperatures, they could be the same, or they could vary drastically.

Conclusion – If the final temperatures varied, then the flavor of the HotPocket affects the final temperature. If the final temperature were the same, then the flavor of the HotPocket does not affect the final temperature.

Answer 83

that's all of it, does it look right?

Answer 84

i got a 100 on it! thanks, @JakeV8 :D

Answer 85

That's awesome... hard work pays off :)