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1. Observation. To me, observation means looking at things. According to many texts, before a scientist develops a hypothesis about anything, that individual notices something that sparks his or her imagination.
2. Questioning. It's the spark of imagination. Maybe a good example is that "huh?" feeling you have when you see something that interests (or surprises or baffles) you, but you don't understand it. Sometimes I call this wonderment, but I don't mean to imply awe - just interested curiosity.
3. Library Search. You want to find out if someone already knows the answer to the question that's on your mind (see step 2). Some people call it "literature search." You might begin your search by calling colleagues who work in the area that concerns you and go from there. Often published journal articles lead to other articles, and you learn as you go.
4. Hypothesis. This may have been in the back of your mind from the start, or at least during the first step (above). Your hypothesis is your educated guess about the answer to the question that occurred to you as you made your observation. Since it's an educated guess, I listed it after library search.
5. Experiment/Test. In many experiments, two groups are observed: an experimental group and a control group. Ideally the two groups are identical except for a single factor. That factor is called the variable factor, and it should be the only difference between the two groups. In a laboratory setting, it is often possible to maintain good control of many things that might affect your results, including the variable factor. Outside of the lab, it's not possible to control things as well as in the lab, and statistical evaluation of experimental data becomes critically important. The design of experiments is critical and not often easy.
The basic idea of your experiment is that you want to predict what should result under certain circumstances if your educated guess (hypothesis) is correct.
