Definitions
What is a scientific question?
How is science creative?
Scientists are creative when they design experiments and come up with possible explanations for what they observed in their investigations.
What is an independent variable?
What we are changing in our experiment.
What is an observation?
Something we can use our five senses to observe.
What is a prediction?
Something we predict will happen in our experiment.
How is science tentative?
It is open to change over time.
What is a dependent variable?
What we are measuring in our experiment.
What is an inference?
A conclusion we make based on our observations.
What is a hypothesis?
An possible explanation for something that we are testing.
How is scientific theories trustworthy even though they are open to change over time?
Theories are supported by lots of evidence and are unlikely to change over time.
Someone is testing how tall plants grow when given different types of fertilizers.
What is the dependent variable?
What is another way of knowing other than science?
Religion, philosophy, tradition, etc.
What is a law?
A statement that describes something in the natural world.
What is science based on?
Empirical evidence. Empirical means we found it using our five senses.
Someone is testing how tall plants grow when given different types of fertilizers.
What is the independent variable?
Fertilizer type.
How is science different than other ways of knowing?
Science is how we can study the natural world using empirical evidence.
What is a theory?
An explanation for something that happens in the natural world.
What is science?
Using observations and experimentation to learn about the natural world.
Someone is testing how much water different paper towel types can absorb.
What is the independent AND dependent variables in this experiment?
Independent: paper towel type
Dependent: how much water is absorbed
What is the different between independent and dependent variables?
We change the independent to measure the dependent!