I wonder if,………How to use the scientific process to find answersto what you wonder about

I wonder if,• Smiling for 10 minutes would lower my

blood pressure• listening to my favorite music for 10

minutes would lower my blood pressure• Looking at pictures of people I love for

10 minutes would lower my blood pressure

• If meditating for 10 minutes would lower my blood pressure

I wonder if,• Holding hands with someone would lower

my blood pressure• If singing for 10 minutes would lower my

blood pressure• If dancing for 10 minutes would lower my

blood pressure• If painting a picture would lower my blood

pressure• If eating chocolate would lower my blood

pressure

What might you do when you wonder?

I google for starters

Why do I google?• To find out what is already known.

To get background info• I’m asking questions about things

that control blood pressure.

What background info do I need?• What exactly is blood pressure?• What is known about how our body

controls blood pressure?• What is known about what kinds of

things can lower blood pressure?• What is known about what things

raise our blood pressure.

Background info is linked to what you are wondering about.• If I wonder whether meditation will

lower blood pressure, then I should google “effects of meditation on blood pressure”

• I would also need to google “what is meditation, how is it done?”

NOW WHAT?• Figure out what you think is the

answer to what you are wondering about.

What you think the answer is will be is your HYPOTHESIS

My HypothesisWritten in If, then formatIf I do meditation for 10 minutes,

then my blood pressure will be lower.

Now What?• Design an experiment to test your

hypothesis.

Does it work?

Designing a Good Experiment

Wonder

First, Think and get ideas.

What should I think about?

Things to think about• Need to know what my normal

blood pressure is so, I will know if it changes because of meditation (or whatever I am hypothesizing about)

• How many times should I take my blood pressure to be sure about the normal level?

Things to think about.• How many people should I test?• How long should I meditate?• How many times should I repeat

the experiment?• Except for meditation, is

everything else the same during each experiment?

What are some of the things that need to be the same in each experiment?• Depends on what you are wondering

about. If you wonder whether eating chocolate will lower BP, then you don’t want any one to eat chocolate before you do background BP test.

• Need to control eating before test

• If you are wondering whether meditating will lower blood pressure, than you don’t want anyone to meditate before you take the normal blood pressure reading.

• If you mediate first you won’t be able to tell if meditating lowers blood pressure or not.

Other things to think about.• If you are wondering whether eating

chocolate lowers BP then everyone in the experiment will need to eat the same kind of chocolate and the same amount.

• Ex. 30 grams of dark chocolate per 100 lb person. A 200 lb person will need to eat 60 grams. Right?

Variables• Many of these things we have

been thinking about are variables. These are things that vary from person to person and experiment to experiments. We want to control these variables and have as few as possible.

What are the variables?

Independent vs dependent variable

meditation

Blood pressure

Write down the step by step procedure for the Experiment.• Gather blood pressure monitors, pen,

data table• 5 people in group come to class and sit

quietly for 5 min, then take blood pressure. RECORD

• Sit in quiet place and meditate for 10 min.

• Take blood pressure again. RECORD• Repeat experiment once a day for 3

days.

Do the Experiment• After you design the experiment

make a data table to collect the data in, then do the experiment.

Sample Data Table

Analyze the data• Look at the data for the answer to

your question.• What do you notice?• Make a graph of your data.

Sample graph

Effects of Meditation on Blood Pressure

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normal

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Does this data support my hypothesis?

Draw a conclusion• It’s not a picture you draw. It’s the

answer you get to your question from the data you collected in the experiment. Does the data support your hypothesis or not?

Final Step• Report your information.• For this project you will be writing

a research paper.