Variables
In a simple, ideal experiment, only this many variables are changed at a time.
What is one?
Scientists believe the universe follows a set of laws called this.
What are natural laws?
People who design technology to solve problems.
What are engineers?
A factor that affects how an experiment works.
What is a variable?
All measurements have these two parts.
What are number value and unit?
The variable you change in an experiment.
What is the experimental variable (or the independent variable)?
A possible explanation that can be tested by comparison with scientific evidence.
What is a hypothesis?
The application of science to meet human needs and solve problems.
What is technology?
Learning about science by asking questions.
What is inquiry?
Why do we need to include units when making a measurement?
So the number value makes sense.
The variables you keep the same.
What are the control variables?
Scientific evidence must be three things. Name one of them.
Objective
Repeatable
Communicated clearly
A working model of a design that can be tested to see if it works.
What is a prototype?
A collection of all the techniques you use to do an experiment.
What is a procedure?
The value of a conversion factor ratio.
What is one?
Milo, the super corgi, studied the effect of caffeine on a person's bedtime. He gave his friends different amounts of caffeine at 4 PM and recorded what time they fell asleep. What is the independent variable in this situation?
The amount of caffiene.
To become an accepted theory, a hypothesis must pass 3 tests. Name one of them.
Be supported by enough evidence
There cannot be even a single piece of evidence that contradicts the theory
The theory must be unique
Which of the following is an example of technology?
Electricity, Gravity, Microscope, or the Sun
What is a microscope?
A situation specifically set up to investigate something (usually a relationship between variables).
What is an experiment?
Describes how close together or reproducible repeated measurements are.
What is precision?
Why is it important to have control variables in an experiment?
If you are only changing one thing at a time, you know that the observed results are only influenced by the independent variable and not another factor.
What happens to a theory when new evidence is discovered?
The current theory correctly explains the new evidence
The current theory does not explain the new evidence, so a new (or improved) theory is waiting to be discovered
The process used by engineers test and improve a design.
What is the engineering cycle?
Each time an experiment is tried (performed).
What is a trial?
When graphing data that shows the change in a variable over time, this is the best graph to use.
What is a line graph?