Scientific Method
What is the first step of the scientific method?
Observation
What do we call an organism made of many cells?
Multicellular
Is this an observation or inference? "The thermometer reads 72°F."
Observation
What is a testable explanation based on observations called (also called an educated guess)?
Hypothesis
What is the variable that a scientist purposely changes called?
Independent variable
Is this an observation or inference? "The plant is probably dying because it hasn't received enough water."
Inference
After conducting an experiment, what should a scientist do with the data?
Come to a conclusion
A student says, "The liquid is blue and has a strong smell." Is this qualitative or quantitative data?
Qualitative
A student notices that plants near a window grow taller. She asks, "Does the amount of sunlight affect plant growth?" Which step of the scientific method is this?
Problem/Question
A student says, "Fire is alive because it grows, uses energy, and spreads." Give one reasons why fire does NOT meet all the characteristics of life.
Fire is not made of cells and does not contain genetic material/DNA.
A student says, "There are 24 bacteria colonies on the plate, so the bacteria must have grown quickly." Identify the observation and the inference.
Observation = 24 bacteria colonies; inference = bacteria grew quickly.
A student concludes that plants receiving more sunlight grew taller and therefore the results support her hypothesis. Which step is she completing?
Conclusion
A scientist changes the amount of fertilizer given to plants and measures their height. What are the independent and dependent variables?
IV = amount of fertilizer; DV = plant height
A car is sitting in a parking lot with smoke coming from its engine. A student says, "The engine overheated." (What part of that scenario is the inference?)
"The engine overheated"