Scientific Method and Inquiry
The scientific study of life
What is biology?
The variable that is manipulated in an experiment.
What is the independent variable?
A tentative explanation for an observation that has not yet been extensively tested.
What is a hypothesis?
The basic structures from which all living things are built.
What are cells?
The three domains of life.
What are Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya?
A way of knowing about the world that is based on what is observable, either directly or indirectly.
What is science?
The variable that is observed or recorded during an experiment.
What is the dependent variable?
An explanation of a phenomenon backed by a large body of evidence and supported by many experiments.
What is a scientific theory?
All of the chemical reactions carried out by a cell.
What is metabolism?
The two domains whose organisms lack a nucleus and are considered prokaryotic.
What are Bacteria and Archaea?
A testable explanation for a question generated by observations.
What is a hypothesis?
The factors that are held constant so that the experiment investigates only the variable of interest.
What are control variables?
Unlike a hypothesis, this is broader in scope and has withstood many tests over time.
What is a scientific theory?
The control of activity within an organism that promotes relatively stable internal conditions.
What is regulation/homeostasis?
The domain whose organisms have a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles and can be either unicellular or multicellular.
What is Eukarya?
Specific tests of hypotheses and their predictions.
What are Experiments?
If an experiment is conducted on plants using different amounts of fertilizer to measure their growth, this is the dependent variable.
What is plant growth?
In human experiments, this method is used to help eliminate bias in observations by keeping participants, researchers, or both unaware of which treatment each participant receives.
What is a blind or double-blind study?
A plant growing toward a light source demonstrates this characteristic of life.
What is detecting and responding to the environment?
The correct order from smallest to largest: molecules → _____ → cells → tissues → organs → organisms
What are organelles?
A hypothesis must have this characteristic, meaning there must be some possible result that could cause scientists to reject it.
What is falsifiable/ refutable?
In an experiment testing whether a new drug lowers blood pressure, one group receives the drug while another group does not. The group that does not receive the drug serves this purpose.
What is a control treatment/group?
A scientist hypothesizes that fertilizer increases plant growth. After conducting an experiment, plants given fertilizer are actually shorter than the control plants. This result demonstrates that the scientist's hypothesis has been ______.
What is falsified/refuted?
The process through which life changes over time.
What is evolution?
Although Bacteria and Archaea are both prokaryotic, genetic evidence indicates that this domain is more closely related to Eukarya.
What is Archaea?