How to Design an Experiment Protocol

The scientific method is standard protocol for developing experiments.

Designing an experiment depends on many variables. The easiest way to design an experiment is by using the scientific method. The scientific method is a list of instructions, or a standard protocol, to follow for performing an experiment. By using a protocol, an experiment that proved favorable can be repeated for duplicated results. Although the steps in the scientific method vary depending on depth of the experiment, they all generate a wealth of data in answering a question.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Pencil

Instructions

Designing an Experiment

1. Ask a question. The first step in designing an experiment is to choose a topic and ask a specific question about it. For example, if the topic is over cars, then the question for the experiment might be: "Can a car run on acetone?"

2. Research and study. In order to design an experiment, it is always helpful to get information about past experiments performed over the question. If the experiment is to test a car running on acetone, then researching previously tested transmissions, engines and percentage of acetone available would be useful.

3. State a hypothesis. A hypothesis is an educated guess about what may happen during the experiment and follows a "If..., then..." format. For example, if a half-and-half mixture of acetone and gasoline were pumped into a standard V6 1995 Honda Accord, then it would get better gas mileage.

4. Perform the experiment to test the hypothesis. It is through the trials and errors of the experiment that results are observed. The data collected can be written down on a table, chart or even on computer software. Collecting this data is essential to form the conclusion of what happened.

5. Write the conclusion. The conclusion is the answer to the original question stated at the beginning of the experiment. The results or data collected will either support or discredit the hypothesis predicted. Depending on which way the experiment went, future experiments can be developed and suggested.

References

• How Stuff Works: How Scientific Method works
• Science Buddies: Steps of the Scientific Method
• ScienceStuff.com: The Scientific Method

Resources

• Science Buddies: Steps of the Scientific Method