The Building Blocks of Science
The branch of science that studies living organisms.
What is biology?
The factors that are deliberately changed in a controlled experiment
What is an independent variable?
In the process of science, this step requires curiosity, skepticism, open-mindedness, and creativity.
What is exploration and discovery?
The building blocks of living things, these are the smallest units that can be considered alive.
What are cells?
The interactions in the biosphere or within the body can be described using this.
What are systems or system models?
The act of noticing and describing events or processes in a careful and orderly manner.
What is an observation?
The factors that are observed and change in response to the independent variable
What is a dependent variable?
A personal point of view for or against something
What is a bias?
The process by which new generations of organisms arise.
What is reproduction?
The spiral of a shell or fern or the tendency of organisms to conform to certain shapes are examples of this.
What are patterns?
A logical interpretation of data or observations
What is an inference?
The group in an experiment where the independent variable is changed
What is the experimental group?
The starting step in both engineering and science where researchers come up with possible solutions to their questions or problems.
What is brainstorming?
The genetic code of an organism is contained in this complex molecule.
What is DNA?
An example of this is the sharp teeth and dense white fur of a polar bear.
What are structure and function?
A highly reliable scientific explanation of events in the natural world, which is supported by repeated observations and used to predict future events.
What is a theory?
The group in an experiment where the independent variable is not changed and is used as a reference.
What is the control group?
In the process of science, this step involves the sharing of knowledge and checking methods, results, and analysis with colleagues.
What is peer review?
A signal, either external or internal, to which a living organism will respond.
What is a stimulus?
In science, understanding how and why living things respond to the environment is an exploration of this and is the basis for defining rules and patterns in nature.
What is cause and effect?
Observing, asking questions, forming hypotheses, conducting experiments, analyzing data, and drawing conclusions are all parts of this.
What is scientific methodology?
A tentative scientific explanation that can be tested by further experimentation or observation.
What is an hypothesis?
Scientific inquiry and engineering design are two related but different processes, but both use this.
What is experimental methodology?
The relatively consistent set of conditions maintained by an organism despite changes in its environment.
What is homeostasis?
All life requires intake of these two basic components of the universe.
What are energy and matter?