When a scientist announces a finding or proposes a new idea, other scientists may repeat the work or test its conclusions.  The universal approach to scientific problems is called the scientific method.

Describe the steps to the scientific method.
· Defining the problem - what are we trying to find out.
· Forming a hypothesis - an educated guess on what you think is going to happen.
· Testing the hypothesis - designing an experiment to verify or disprove your hypothesis.
· Observing and measuring - collecting data from your experiment.
· Analyzing and drawing conclusions - does the data you collected fit the hypothesis you made.
· Reporting observations. - tell others of your work so they can duplicate your experiments.

In controlled experiments what is the variable? What is the control?
· Variable - a single factor that is changed during an experiment to test the effects of that change.
· Control - setting up an experiment where no factors are changed.  Serves as a reference to compare the other "changed" experiments.

What are the difference between hypothesis, theory and scientific law?
· Hypothesis - an educated guess.
· Theory - is a hypothesis that has been tested and works for a wide range of experiments.  99.9% certain that this is the case.
· Scientific law - a statement that is always true.  Made after thousands of observations and test.  Very difficult to obtain.  There can be no exception.  It is always true.