Scientific Method Unit One

Scientific Method Steps

100

An educated guess

What is a hypothesis

200

This is set up to test the hypothesis

What is an experiment

300

At 1 minute the solution temperature was 60 degrees Fahrenheit, at 2 minutes it’s temperature was 63 degrees Fahrenheit, at 3 minutes it was 68 degrees, at 4 minutes it was 70 degrees, and then it remained at 70 degrees for the next 5 minutes. This information would be placed in this section of a lab report...

What is the results

400

“If the amount of sugar added to water is increased, then the boiling point will also increase”. The above statement represents what step of the scientific method?

What is the hypothesis

500

These are the 6 steps of the scientific method listed in order from start to finish.

What is Problem or Question, Research, Hypothesis, Experiment, Results, Conclusion

Variables

100

This is the variable in an experiment that you are testing. It is the one thing that is allowed to be "different" between the groups at the start of the experiment

What is Independent or Manipulated Variable

200

This is another name for the dependent variable.

What is the responding variable

300

These are the variables that could affect experimental results. They have to be kept the "same" between the groups

What is controlled variables or constants

400

A scientist sets up an experiment to see if the drug melatonin increases the number of hours people can sleep. He gives 10 people melatonin before bed and has them document their number of sleep hours. He gives another 10 people a placebo (a fake pill) before bed and has them document their number of sleep hours. In this experiment this is the number of hours of sleep the people get.

What is the dependent or responding variable?

500

A scientist wants to know if DNA from a fish that lives in cold water can be inserted into the DNA of apples to help preserve the apples if crops are exposed to an early frost. He inserts the DNA into 5 picked apples, exposes them to below freezing temperatures, and monitors their appearance and taste. He does NOT insert the DNA into another 5 picked apples, exposes them to below freezing temperatures, and monitors their taste and appearance. This is the independent variable in this experiment.

What is the inserted DNA or DNA from the fish

Oops! Bad Science

100

A girl wants to know if food type affects weight gain in fish. She sets up two tanks. One tank consists of 5 Goldfish that are fed Brand A food twice a day. A second tank consists of 5 Angelfish that are fed Brand B food once a day. This is the independent variable in this experiment.

What is food type

200

A girl wants to know if food type affects weight gain in fish. She sets up two tanks. One tank consists of 5 Goldfish that are fed Brand A food twice a day. A second tank consists of 5 Angelfish that are fed Brand B food once a day. These are two variables mentioned that need to be kept constant or controlled.

What is 1) species or type of fish and 2) number of times fish are fed per day

300

A student wants to know if the amount of light will affect plant growth. He sets up an experiment and collects the data shown. Light Amount Water Amount/day Growth Amount 8hrs 0ml 0cm 7hrs 2ml 2cm 6hrs 4ml 6cm 5 hrs 6ml 2cm a) This is the independent variable b) This is the dependent variable

What is..... a) Light amount b) Growth of the plant

400

Nick wanted to know how high an ice cube would float in different temperatures of water. So he set up the following experiment: He put 10 degree Celsius water in a coffee cup, 30 degree Celsius water in a plastic cup, 50 degree Celsius water in a glass, and 100 degree Celsius water in a thermos. He put an ice cube in each and measured the height at which each floated (from the bottom). The different cups should be this....

What is controlled variables or constants

500

Sponge Bob notices that his pal Gary is suffering from slimotosis, which occurs when the shell develops a nasty slime and gives off a horrible odor. His friend Patrick tells him that rubbing seaweed on the shell is the perfect cure, while Sandy says that drinking Dr. Kelp will be a better cure. Sponge Bob decides to test this cure by rubbing Gary with seaweed for 1 week and having him drink Dr. Kelp. After a week of treatment, the slime is gone and Gary’s shell smells better. This is a bad experiment. Given this information there are 4 possible cures that could have made Spongebob feel better. Three of the 4 possible cures are.....

What is a) Seaweed rubbed on shell b) Drinking Dr. Kelp c) both seaweed and Dr. Kelp together d) time

Mass, Density, Weight, Volume, Buoyancy

100

The gravitational pull of Jupiter is 2.87 times that of Earth's. This is the.... a) mass of a 110 pound person on Jupiter and b) weight of a 110 pound person on Jupiter

What is .... a) 110 lbs. (mass doesn't change) and b) 315.7 lbs. (110 X 2.87)

200

A fish is placed in a graduated cylinder containing 30 mls of water. The fish is completely submerged and the water level rises to 35 mls. This is the volume of the fish.

What is 5cubic centimeters

300

Mercury metal is a liquid at room temperature. It is poured into a graduated cylinder and fills up exactly 22.5 mls. This metal weighs or masses out at 306 g. This is the density of mercury with exact units.

What is 13.6 g/ml (density = mass divided by volume so 306 divided by 22.5)

400

A 28.5 g chunk of iron is added to a graduated cylinder containing 45.5mLs of water. The water level rises to the 49.10 mL mark. From this information the calculated density of iron (rounded to hundredths) is.....

What is 7.92g/cubic centimeter (Density equals mass divided by volume) (49.10 -45.5 is water displaced equals 3.6 for volume so mass of 28.5 divided by volume of 3.6 is 7.92)

500

An object weighs 36 grams in the air. It has a volume 8cubic centimeters. The mass of 1 cubic centimeter of water is 1 gram. This is the apparent weight of the object in water.

What is 28 grams? (the object displaces 8 cubic centimeters of water...it's volume, and this 8 cubic centimeters would weigh 8 grams, so buoyant force upward is 8 grams and true weight down is 36 grams. 36 grams in weight down with 8 grams up from b.f. is 36 -8 = 28)

This and That

100

When we make sense of what we are observing, we are making one of these. For example; like when we see a grown person with a thermometer in their mouth, a cup of hot cocoa nearby, and a phone in their hand, we might reason that this person is calling into work sick. This is called ....

What is an inference

200

You are collecting data for an experiment. You record in your results section the following statement: "The leaf is 9cm long." When you record the 9cm, you are making this type of observation.

What is a quantitative observation

300

Clara wants to know if people run faster in sandals or in dress shoes. She decides that she will do a scientific experiment to figure out which type of shoe makes her run faster. In this experiment this is the dependent variable.

What is the time it takes her to run (in each shoe type).

400

A shopping mall wanted to determine whether the more expensive “Tough Stuff” floor wax was better than the cheaper “Steel Seal” (what they normally use) floor wax at protecting the tile against scratches. One liter of each brand of floor wax was applied to 5 test sections in the main hallway of the mall. The test sections were the same size and covered the same type of tile. After 3 weeks the number of scratches in each test section was counted and the overall appearance of the test sections was recorded. a) This is the independent variable b) This is the dependent variable c) This is the control group

What is a) type of floor wax b) # of scratches c) Steel Seal (brand normally used)

500

3 cubes are placed in a graduated cylinder completely full of water. All three of the cubes have all sides measuring 5 cm each. Two of the cubes have a mass of 5 g and one of the cubes has a mass of 17 g. This is the volume of water that overflows over the sides.

What is 375 mls? (all have a volume of 5 X 5 X 5 = 125 cubic centimeters and solids will displace a volume of liquid that is equal to their volume....3 cubes at 125cc is 375mls total) The mass is irrelevant information.