Fair Test Example

An advert on TV claims that a new brand of cleaner is better than all the others. Your job is to design a fair test to see if the claim is true.

Our ideas:

Things we can change are:

The amount of cleaner used	The temperature of the water
The type of cleaner	The amount of water used
The type of stains	The size of the stain

Things we can measure and record are:

The time taken for the cleaner to dissolve stains

Sorting our ideas

When comparing different cleaners, the one thing we will change is:

The type of cleaner

The one thing we will measure is:

The time taken for the cleaner to dissolve stains

All these things we will keep the same:

The amount of cleaner used	The temperature of the water
	The amount of water used
The type of stains	The size of the stain

 

Report Writing:

We want to find out what things influence the way that a cleaner dissolves stains. In our test we will keep these things the same: The amount of cleaner used, the temperature of the water, the amount of water used, the type of stains and the size of the stain. We think that if we use the TV brand cleaner, the measurements we record of the the time taken for the cleaner to dissolve stains will decrease.

What did I learn? I found out that the TV brand cleaner does remove stains faster than the two other brands we tested

I would like to know more about how cleaning chemicals work and how "dry cleaning" works.

I enjoyed using the chemistry equipment.

I need help with tidying up afterwards.

 

The Sorcerers Scientists Apprentice

Part One: Read this...

Scientists think of new ideas to explain what happens around us. The idea is called a hypothesis. A scientists will think "If I am right I can guess what will happen in the future". This is called making a prediction. A good scientist will always try to test their hypothesis to see if it matches the prediction. The test must be done carefully so that it is fair and honest. At the end of the test the scientists thinks "What did the test show me?". This is called forming a conclusion. Last of all, but most importantly, a scientists asks "Do I need to change my ideas?"

Part Two: Copy and answer the questions below:

NOTE: An experiment is simply used to TEST our ideas about the world around us. Sometimes your conclusion shows that your original idea was not correct. This is great! You have discovered something you didn't know before! There is no single 'Scientific Method' that scientists follow, but the above 'Fair Test' method is one way to introduce the concept of objectively testing ideas about the world around us.