Applying The Scientific Method to Everyday Life. Applying The Scientific Method to Everyday Life
Recently, Earl attended a picnic at his daughter’s school. The picnic was a potluck, and the food was served outdoors. Contributions included hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, potato chips, potato salad, coleslaw, apple pie, and vanilla ice cream. Within 24 hours of the picnic, several attendees developed symptoms of food poisoning. Of the 50 people who attended the picnic, only 30 people became ill. Every person at the picnic ate something, but not every person had an opportunity to sample each item. Earl noticed that the potato salad he started to eat was warm. He also noticed that his hamburger was somewhat pink in the middle and not fullycooked. Earl wonders if eating the hamburgers or the potato salad could be responsible for making some attendees ill. Earl has begun to apply the scientific method to this common problem. Answereach of the following prompts in at least 75 words.
| Prompt | Your response |
| What is Earl’s hypothesis? How did Earl create his hypothesis? | |
| Describe the steps of the scientific method Earl utilized. | |
| How could Earl use the scientific method to create an experiment to determine which food sources made people sick? |
