Procedure to follow when conducting scientific investigation

A hypothesis is an intelligent guess about the cause of the problem under investigation. At this step you guess the cause of the identified problem or what could be the answer for the problem at hand. For instance, given the amaranth problem one hypothesis could be that "the difference in growth of amaranth is caused by water shortage". The importance of this step is to be able to set an investigation which will justify or falsify the hypothesis. If the hypothesis does not answer your question then you need to formulate another one.

At this step you gather the apparatus or equipment and materials which can be used to collect information in your investigation. You then identify the location where the investigation will be conducted. For example, a hand hoe, a bucket of water and amaranth seeds are materials which can be used in the investigation of the difference in growth of amaranth. The site must have enough sunlight and the soil must be fertile. This step is very important in scientific investigation. If you do not have appropriate equipment and materials, you may end up collecting wrong information (data) and the entire experiment may fail to solve the problem.

At this step, the experiment is conducted by using the prepared equipment and materials. For example, in the current investigation you can plan to plant amaranth seeds in two gardens. After germination of the seeds, irrigate the first garden in the morning and evening but do not irrigate the second. Measure the length of amaranth plants in each garden after every two days. Collect the data and record it in your note book.

All data which are collected during an investigation must be analyzed. This involves organizing, sorting and arranging data properly. For example, you can compare the length of amaranth plants from the irrigated and non-irrigated gardens in order to identify which sample grew faster. After data analysis, the results may be presented using tables, charts or graphs.

At this stage, the analyzed data are interpreted in order to obtain meaningful information. This may enable others who are interested in the study to understand the problem and solutions. Based on the data shown in the table below, the irrigated amaranth grew faster than the non-irrigated amaranth.

This is the last stage in scientific investigation. At this stage you can prove the hypothesis. You can also link the results obtained with the cause of the problem and the question you have asked. If the results support the hypothesis, the conclusion will be "there is a direct relationship between the growth of amaranth and water availability". If the results do not support the hypothesis, the conclusion will be "there is no relationship between the growth of amaranth and water availability". In this case, a new hypothesis must be formulated and the experiment must be repeated.

After finishing the scientific investigation, the activity which follows is writing a scientific report. The report is organized in the following order:

• The problem statement
• Aim or objective of the investigation
• Materials or equipment
• Procedure of data collection
• Data analysis and results
• Conclusion