Experimental Design
A variable that is deliberately changed by the scientist in an experiment.
What is the independent variable?
The first step in the scientific method, often based on observations.
What is asking a question or making an observation?
All the members of the same species living in an area.
What is a population?
This term describes the non-living components of an ecosystem, such as temperature or soil pH.
What are abiotic factors?
This mammal can hold its breath longer than most whales—up to 2 hours.
What is a sperm whale?
The factor that is measured in an experiment.
What is the dependent variable?
A testable explanation or educated guess.
What is a hypothesis?
A community of organisms and their environment interacting together.
What is an ecosystem?
Organisms that make their own food using sunlight or chemical energy.
What are producers or autotrophs?
This organ is about the size of your fist, but pumps enough blood every day to fill more than 30 bathtubs.
What is the heart?
The group in an experiment that does not receive the treatment and is used for comparison.
What is the control group?
This part of the scientific method involves collecting data to test the hypothesis.
What is experimentation?
The role an organism plays in its environment, including its interactions with other organisms.
What is a niche?
Organisms that break down dead plants and animals and recycle nutrients back into the ecosystem.
What are decomposers?
Bananas are technically not trees but belong to this plant family, which also includes ginger.
What are herbs?
This term refers to the factors that must be kept the same in all parts of an experiment to ensure a fair test.
What are constants or controlled variables?
Conclusions in science should be based on this, not personal opinion.
What is evidence or data?
A relationship where two species live closely together and at least one benefits.
What is symbiosis?
A feeding level in a food chain or food web.
What is a trophic level?
If you stretched out all the DNA in a single human cell, it would be about 2 meters long—but all of it is packed into this tiny structure.
What is a nucleus?
The practice of repeating an experiment multiple times to ensure reliability.
What is replication?
A hypothesis that has been supported by many experiments and observations over time can become this.
What is a theory?
The study of the interactions between living things and their environment.
What is ecology?
The ecological term used to describe all relationships between living organisms on Earth.
What is the biosphere?
In the movie Jurassic Park, dinosaurs were ‘brought back’ using DNA from this insect trapped in amber.
What is a mosquito?