ASK QUESTIONS

In order for scientific question to be considered "good," consider the following guiding criteria:
1) the question is answerable and the results are measurable
2) the question is within the realm of testability
3) confounding factors can be controlled or determined about the system in order to design the experiment and control variability
4) hypothesis are clearly stated: Null--There will be no significance difference between the results of the treatments.
Alternative--There will be a significant difference between the results of the two treatments.
5) the experiment itself will not affect or alter the outcome/material/subject in such a way as to influence the results or cause the data to be invalid (For example, "Will the presence of the experimenter affect the subject's response?")
6) design the experiment in such a way that the results can be analyzed to determine their significance (using a statistical test)


Questions come from...
curiosity
observation (casual or exploratory)
previous studies