Scientific Method
The very first step of the scientific method, where you use your five senses to notice something about the world.
What is making an observation?
To be considered scientific, a question must be this, meaning you can find the answer by doing an experiment.
What is testable
This type of scientific investigation involves changing one specific factor to see its effect on another factor under controlled conditions.
What is a controlled experiment?
This is the one specific variable that the scientist purposely changes or manipulates in an experiment.
What is the independent variable?
This handheld tool is perfect for magnifying small objects like the legs of an insect while out in the field.
What is a hand lens? (Accept: Magnifying glass).
An educated guess or a testable statement that predicts the outcome of an experiment.
What is a hypothesis?
This is a statement or explanation based on what you observe combined with what you already know from past experiences.
What is an inference?
An investigation where you observe and record organisms or natural events in their environment without changing anything.
What is a field study? (Accept: Observational study).
This is the variable that is measured or observed to see how it responds during the experiment.
What is the dependent variable?
This tool is used to measure the mass of an object, usually in grams.
What is a pan balance? (Accept: Triple beam balance).
The step in the scientific method where you look closely at your charts, graphs, and collected data to figure out what they mean.
What is analyzing data?
Unlike personal opinions or art, all scientific knowledge and conclusions must be backed up by this.
What is empirical evidence? (Accept: Observations/Data).
Scientists create this highly detailed, step-by-step list before starting an experiment so anyone else can follow it exactly.
What is a procedure?
These are all the factors in an experiment that must be kept exactly the same to ensure the test is fair.
What are controlled variables? (Accept: Constants).
You would use this tall, narrow, marked container to precisely measure the volume of a liquid in milliliters.
What is a graduated cylinder?
Scientists do this at the very end of their investigation to share what they learned with the scientific community.
What is communicating/sharing results?
When another scientist copies your exact experiment step-by-step to see if they get the same results.
What is replication?
Doing an experiment only one single time is bad science; instead, a good plan always includes multiple of these.
What are trials?
In an experiment testing how different amounts of fertilizer affect a plant's height, the amount of fertilizer is this variable.
What is the independent variable?
This laboratory tool uses powerful lenses to let scientists look at things far too small to see with the naked eye, like plant cells.
What is a microscope?
This is what a scientist should do next if their experimental data completely disproves their original hypothesis.
What is revise the hypothesis and test again? (Accept: Form a new hypothesis).
When you conduct multiple trials of your own experiment to make sure your results are accurate and reliable.
What is repetition?
This is the main reason why scientific models (like a model of the solar system) are used in investigations instead of the real thing.
What is because the real thing is too big, too small, too fast, too slow, or too dangerous to study directly?
If a student tests how different shoes affect running speed but allows some students to run on grass and others on concrete, the experiment is flawed because they forgot to control this variable.
What is the running surface? (Accept: Location).
This tool measures force or weight by stretching a hook, and it registers its measurements in Newtons.
What is a spring scale?