what do scientific methods generally include?

Answer 1

purpose, question, hypothesis, testing, evaluating results, conclusion

Answer 2

Classically speaking, a true scientific experiment is one where you manipulate something to look at the effects on something else. For that kind of scientific method, the process would "generally" be:

Observation. You observe a natural phenomenon, or read other scientists' observations and results with regards to a phenomenon, and think to yourself, what's going on with that?

Theory. From these observations, you form a theory that can be tested, such as "the variable colour of these leaves is probably due to changes in the calcium in the soil available to the plant". This theory is obviously based on your observations or others' evidence and not random guesses! These two bits, observation and theory, form the Introduction part of a scientific publication.

Testing. At this point since you've formed a theory (say about leaf colour) you go and make manipulations to see if your theory is correct. That is, keep all other things constant with a group of test subjects but vary the aspect that you're interested in. In this case you'd have a series of plants grown from seed in different soil-calcium environments, but with everything else (e.g. temperature and water availability) the same. This would form the Methods section of a scientific publication.

Results. Here you take your results and compare them. Now, this is more than saying "well I grew two plants and the one in higher-calcium soil had yellower leaves". You have to have replicated tests and use appropriate statistical methods (which is a whole 'nother question in itself!). Mostly this is presented as bland, interpretation-free, numerical data and statistics. This would be the Results section of a scientific publication.

Discussion and conclusion. Here you interpret your results based on others' evidence and your results. Maybe you found that even though another scientist found that calcium-rich soils lead to greener leaves in one species, you used a species that had greener leaves in calcium-poor soils. Or maybe you found that a moderate calcium level was best for leaf greening, but high-level calcium inhibited greening. Whatever it is, you present the numerical results as theory in plain English. This is the Discussion section of a scientific publication.

References. Though not formally part of the "method" you always publish your list of references and sources here!

Answer 3

1-Observation or experiment,
2-generalization,3-hypothesis, 4- re experiment,5-correct the hypothesis or discard it and make a new one,6-go to the first step until it perfectly satisfies predictions.7-Finally take a conclusion which will be regarded as a scientific law.

Answer 4

A collection of observed or researched data.

After analysis, the results yield a hypothesis.

Additional tests, usually by other scientists, will confirm or dispute that hypothesis.

Successful tests from these will yield a scientific theory.

Answer 5

1) Hypothesis - what you intend to investigate
2) Materials and Method - how you are planning to test it
3) Results - the raw data you observed or generated
4) Analysis - your objective analysis
5) Conclusion - the "so what?" of your weekend's work

Most of the time, a good experiment will lead to more experiements and questions, thus keeping you, the scientist, in business forever!

Answer 6

A hypothesis, testing, and the results.

Answer 7

A testable question. if you can't test it, it is not science.