What are the 7 basic steps of scientific method

 

 1. Identification of a problem: The first step of scientific method is identification of a problem .something is considered a problem.if it's solution is not obvious .some crucial information is missing .Solving the problem involves finding this missing information.A problem is something which has a solution . A problem can be in the from of a question.to find a solution of the problem it should be clearly stated in testable and measurble terms. Take the following example .in an area many people died of an unknown disease.on publics request government hired a team of scientists to look into the problem. All that was communicated to the scientists ,team was that an unknown disease has caused many deaths and the government needs to solve the problem.this was the first step of identification of the problem that there is a disease which has caused many deaths which needs to be controlled .To find the solution the team needed to state the problem in a manner that provides guidelines to find a solution.The problem was that there was a fatal disease killing many people and the cause of the disease was not known hence the government needed to find the cause of the disease and take measures to control it by eliminating the disease .So the problem was what was the cause of disease X and how it could be controlled .The problem should not be too broad or too narrow. A broader question problem is unmanageable.for example consider the following problem; what types of conditions are best for growing green plants? It is too broad and does not provide any guide line to search the solution . However, if restated in following terms it helps to design the research or experiment. Do the green plants grow better under direct sunlight or under the shade? This problem can be further narrowed down taking just any one type of green plants. The problem should be stated in clear , precise and specific terms.     2.Background Research: Background research is the research related to the problem and it is basically a review of the literature on related research.After identifying the problem scientists collect more information on the problem before taking steps to find the solution.The literature review helps the researcher to narrow down the problem and to state it more precisely .It also helps in finding the best way to plan and design his /her research. This will also ensure that the mistakes made by the others are not repeated.  3. Formulate a Hypothesis; In scientific terminology an intelligent guess based on observations is called hypothesis. In order to solve the problem a Hypothesis is stated. Hypothesis is an educated guess towards the solution of problem .Hypothesis must be stated in a way that it can easily be tested .Hypothesis should be constructed in such a way that it help to answer the original question. 4. Conduct an Experiment; Experiment are conducted to test whether the hypothesis is true or false. An experiment is designed to provide a means to make a solid conclusion about the hypothesis. Therefore experiment must be planned and designed in a manner to control any factor that may cause inaccuracy in the results .For this purpose experiments are conducted in a way that only the variable ,the effeçt of which is to be studied ,is changed keeping all the other variables constant or same. Except light all the other factors or variables such as amount of water or soil type, that might have an effect on plant growth, are kept the same. Experiments are repeated many times in order to ensure the results.    5. Collect the  Data;.     Data is collected during the experiment .The data must be collected with accuracy and precision .The collected data can be presented in the form of table,graphs or both. 6 .Analyze the Data and Draw a Conclusion;  Data analysis entails finding patterns ,recognizing relationship between cause and effect.After the collection of Data ,it is analyzed .For analysis ,statistics formulae are applied to see if hypothesis is true or false. In other words with the help of Data analysis it can be verified whether the findings of the experiment support the hypothesis or not .On the basis of the Data analysis,conclusions are drawn.   7. Report the Results;. The communication of results is very important and significant step in scientific research .your result explain how experiment can be applied to real life.