Scientific Inquiry & Data
These visual tools help scientists show patterns and information clearly.
What are graphs?
This star is at the center of our solar system and provides heat and light.
What is the Sun?
This map feature explains the symbols used on a map.
What is a map key (legend)?
This continent is home to the Sahara Desert, the largest hot desert in the world.
What is Africa?
This tool is used to observe distant stars, planets, and galaxies.
What is a telescope?
This type of data uses numbers and measurements.
What is quantitative data?
This is the distance light travels in one year.
What is a light-year?
This tells you how distances on a map compare to real-life distances.
What is a map scale?
This large landform is a flat area of land with few trees.
What is a plain?
This force keeps planets moving in their orbits around the Sun.
What is gravity?
This is the variable that a scientist changes during an experiment.
What is the independent variable?
This massive explosion is believed to have started the universe.
What is the Big Bang?
Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest are these type of directions on a compass rose.
What are intermediate directions?
This continent includes countries like France, Spain, and Germany.
What is Europe?
This theme of geography explains how people depend on and change their environment.
What is human-environment interaction?
This type of investigation describes what is observed without changing anything.
What is a descriptive investigation?
These planets are made mostly of gas and include Jupiter and Saturn.
What are gas giants?
This imaginary line divides Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
What is the Equator?
This long river flows through northeastern Africa and is one of the longest in the world.
What is the Nile River?
This hemisphere contains most of Africa and South America.
What is the Southern Hemisphere?
This is the process scientists use to ask questions and learn about the natural world.
What is scientific inquiry?
These objects are large systems of stars, gas, and dust held together by gravity.
What are galaxies?
This line measures distance east and west of the Prime Meridian.
What is longitude?
This ocean lies between the Americas and Europe and Africa.
What is the Atlantic Ocean?
This natural event happens when charged particles from the Sun interact with Earth’s magnetic field.
What is an aurora?