A rancher noticed that several grazing animals had become sick after grazing in a new area. The rancher asked a team of scientists to analyze this problem.
They visited the area and found that the food available to the animals was similar to the food they had been eating. The water supply in the area was adequate but limited to a single spring. Some of the scientists felt that the water might be contaminated with a pathogen. Therefore, they collected water samples from the spring in the new area and compared them with water samples taken from previous grazing sites. The scientists noticed that water from the new area was cloudier than water obtained from other areas. Culturing this water revealed that a pathogenic strain of bacteria was present. This bacterial strain was found to be identical to a strain obtained from sick animals. This strain was not present in healthy animals. They concluded that a contaminated water supply in the new area was responsible for the problem and instructed the rancher to avoid the water supply. The disease was not found in the rancher's livestock again.
The following paragraph describes the activities of hypothetical scientists. After reading this paragraph, list the steps of the scientific method, and list the activities that correspond to the steps of the scientific method.
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