The Scientific Method

Observations and Inferences

100

Which letter is a qualitative observation? A. The students must have studied hard, because they all got As. B. The students studied for 3 hours. C. The students were studying using flashcards.

C

200

Which is a quantitative observation? A. The students ate 3 pieces of pizza each. B. The students ordered pizzas with pepperoni, cheese and sauce. C. The students must be hungry, because they ate lots of pizza.

A

300

Which is an inference? A. The students were painting red and purple watercolor paintings. B. The students each painted 3 pieces of paper. C. The students must be coming from art class, because they have paint on their hands.

C

400

Which is a qualitative observation? A. Card games are better than board games. B. The students are playing Candyland and Uno. C. Six students are playing card games and 8 students are playing board games.

B

500

Is the following a qualitative observation, quantitative observation or inference? The students must all know the answer, because everyone is raising their hands.

Inference

Types of Variables

100

What is the part of the experiment we change at the start on purpose?

The independent variable

200

What is the part of the experiment that stays the same for the entire experiemnt? This part keeps the experiment fair!

The Control Variables

300

What is the part of the experiment that we measure as we are conducting an experiment? It is the part we fill in the data table with?

The Dependent Variable

400

I am testing whether a dog or cat can run down my block faster. I put the dog and the cat at the end of the block. My brother stands at the other end of the block and uses a stop watch to time how fast they can get down there. What is the independent variable?

The type of animal

500

I am testing whether a dog or cat can run down my block faster. I put the dog and the cat at the end of the block. My brother stands at the other end of the block and uses a stop watch to time how fast they can get down there. What is the dependent variable?

The time it takes to the dog and cat to run down the block

Head or Tails Study

100

If you flip a coin, then you will get heads more often than tails, because it is heavier. What step to the scientific method is this?

Hypothesis

200

You make a bar graph on how many times you got heads and how many times you got tails. What step is this?

Analyze

300

Using the same type of coin is an example of what type of variable?

Control

400

You write that your results would be helpful to people on sports teams who do coin tosses at the beginning of games. What step is this?

Discuss

500

You follow the steps to your procedures, keeping track of every flip in your data table. What step is this?

Experiment

Study on Cell Phones (Does the type affect the number of minutes a person talks on it?)

100

The type of phone is what type of variable?

Independent

200

The number of minutes a person talks on the phone is what type of variable?

Dependent

300

Your dad works at a cell phone shop. You give the results to your dad to look at. What step to the scientific method is this?

Share

400

Your hypothesis was that people with i-phones will talk more than people with flip-phones. You found that people with i-phones talk 300 minutes per month and people with flip-phones talk 150 minutes per month. Did you support your hypothesis?

Yes

500

Your hypothesis is that people with i-Phones use more minutes than people with Droids. Look at the graph. Did you support your hypothesis?

No