Glendale's Nature of Science Questions

Glendale's Nature of Science 

Created by Mr. Trahan

Multiple Choice

A student plants four plants and measures their heights. For the next month, the student gives the plants different amounts of water. After one month, the student measures the height of the plants again.

Which BEST explains what the student is trying to study?

• How does water affect plant growth?

• What affects the amount of water a plant gets?

• How does sunlight affect plant growth?

• What affects the number of plants that grow?

Multiple Choice

Sally places a piece of chocolate, a piece of sugar-free butterscotch, and a pebble on the sidewalk and counts how many ants are attracted to each over a ten minute period. She does this for five days, and records the information in the table. Why would Sally perform this test only on five sunny days instead of five days in a row?

• There are

  more ants outside when it rains.

• The

  butterscotch and the chocolate might melt.

• Repetition

  will prevent errors in the results.

• To limit the

  number of variables present.

Multiple Choice

Randy measures how far a marble rolls across a table when the table has different covering on it. He records his data in the table.

Which is the BEST prediction for how far the marble will roll on the tablecloth for Trial 3?

• 12 cm

• 7 cm

• 18 cm

• 22 cm

Multiple Choice

Science is grounded in testable experiments. Which of these is a testable scientific question?

• Is growing

  plants a fun hobby?

• What gas do

  plants produce during photosynthesis?

• What kinds

  of plants look best by my house?

• What potted

  plants should I grow?

Multiple Choice

Scott grew four basil plants by putting them in a mixture of water and fertilizer. He wanted to find out if growing the plants this way could make them grow taller than plants that grow in the ground. How should Scott set up a control group for his experiment?

• He should

  grow four basil plants in soil.

• He should

  grow four tomato plants in water and fertilizer.

• He should

  use different amounts of fertilizer for each plant.

• He should

  grow some plants in warm water and some in cold water.

Multiple Choice

There is an apple tree in Kim’s backyard. Every

year a bird builds a nest and raises its young in the tree. Each year Kim records how many baby

birds are born. She also records

the average temperature and rainfall during the summer.

Is this an experiment or an investigation?

• An investigation because it involves trials over several years

• An experiment because it has a control

• An investigation because it only involves observations of nature, no hypothesis or control

• An experiment because there are multiple variables each year

Multiple Choice

A scientist discovers a dinosaur fossil in her local park. She records her observations in her

notebook. Why is this considered an investigation and NOT an experiment?

• The

  scientist had only one control group in her study.

• The

  scientist is unable to repeat her study of what the dinosaur ate.

• The

  scientist has an opinion of what the dinosaur ate.

• The

  scientist only recorded her observations; there was no variable, no

  hypothesis.

Multiple Choice

Jane conducts an experiment that compares different fertilizers. The same type of bean is planted in each tray and they are all given the same amount of water and sunlight.

What is the control group in Jane’s experiment?

• The tray labeled Fertilizer A

• The tray labeled Fertilizer B

• The tray labeled No Fertilizer

• The trays labeled Fertilizer A and Fertilizer B

Multiple Choice

Sally places a piece of chocolate, a piece of sugar-free butterscotch, and a pebble on the sidewalk and counts how many ants are attracted to each over a ten minute period. She does this for five days, and records the information in the table. Whis it is important that Sally includes a pebble in the test?

• Replication

  shows that the results are reliable

• Control

  groups help determine if the results are random

• Multiple

  trials increase the reliability of the results

• Repetition ensures consistency of the results

Multiple Choice

Turtles are cold-blooded, meaning they use the Sun to keep warm. A student hypothesizes that his pet turtle will prefer swimming in warm water. He places his turtle on a rock in the middle of the bathtub and measures how much time the turtle spends off of the rock during a five minute period. He conducts the experiment under four conditions in the bathtub: no water, warm water, cool water, and room temperature water. In this experiment , which is the control group?

• The warm water

• The cool water

• The empty tub

• The room temp water

Multiple Choice

Kareem is studying liquids and gases. Kareem adds ice to a jar of water and closes the top. Then he sees drops of water form on the outside of the jar. He says that water vapor in the air has taken liquid form. Which of the following best describes Kareem’s statement?

• prediction

• inference

• experiment

• observation

Multiple Choice

Walt wants to know more about webs that spiders make. He looks at real examples as well as pictures. Walt says that spiders are helpful because they eat annoying insects. Which of the following BEST describes Walt’s statement?

• Opinion

• Prediction

• Experiment

• Observation

Multiple Choice

Two students take two identical spring toys and send them down three different flights of stairs; the front brick stairs to the school, the concrete stairs to the second floor, and the metal stairs in the gym. They record how many steps each spring toy goes down for each set of stairs. Even though there are two students and two spring toys, they each repeat their tests three times on each type of stairs.

What can they NOT conclude from their study?

• The height of the steps affects the number of steps the spring toy will go down

• The material of the steps affects the number of steps the spring toy will go down

• The number of steps the spring toy changes with the hardness of the stairs because they used different spring toys

• The number of steps the spring toy will go down is consistent for each set of stairs, because they did not run repeated trials

Multiple Choice

Sally places a piece of chocolate, a piece of sugar-free butterscotch, and a pebble on the sidewalk and counts how many ants are attracted to each over a ten minute period. She does this for five days, and records the information in the table. Based upon this table, can the student determine that ants are more attracted to items with sugar than items without sugar?

• Yes, the ants are more

  attracted to the chocolate and the butterscotch than the pebble

• No, the ants were sometimes

  more attracted to the pebble

• Yes, the ants were more

  attracted to the chocolate that the butterscotch and the pebble

• No, the ants were attracted

  to the all the items equally on different days

Multiple Choice

Juan recorded his observations from a mold investigation in the table.

Which explanation BEST supports his observations?

• Only green mold grows on food

• Mold grows best in moist

  environments

• Water has little effect on

  mold growth

• Refrigeration helps slow down

  mold growth

Multiple Choice

Sophia is investigating the birds in her backyard. Which of these statements is a personal opinion rather than a scientific observation?

• The red birds have the most

  beautiful song

• The large black birds spread

  their wings in the Sun

• Different types of birds live

  in different parts of the same tree

• More birds visit her bird

  feeder in the morning than in the afternoon

Multiple Choice

A group of students collects samples of rainwater every week and tests the acidity. They then use the rainwater collected to water tomato plants that they grow in their classroom. They record the height of the plants each week after the plants are watered, and the results are recorded in the table.

The students concluded that tap water is the best for tomato plants. However, they decide to ask another group of students to do their experiment over. Why would they want to do this?

• To introduce a new variable, since all the plants grew

• To validate the experiment by showing that it can be replicated

• To create a new control group

• To prove the study can have multiple trials and produce different results, which makes it valid

Multiple Choice

Amari experimented the effect of mass on acceleration. She applied the same force to different objects and measured how far they moved. She recorded her results in the table.

How can she improve the accuracy of her results?

• She can use objects with more

  mass

• She can change the force used

  each time

• She can use a different

  surface for each object

• She can have someone else

  replicate her procedure

Multiple Choice

Peyton is conducting a scientific experiment. Why should he repeat the experiment several times?

• To use all the materials at

  least once

• To better understand his

  procedure

• To make sure his results are

  accurate

• To change variables during

  each trial

Multiple Choice

Tina has a classmate perform her same experiment the exact same way she did. Why does her friend expect the results from both experiments to be the same?

• The friend is stealing Tina's experiment.

• Tina made a mistake during

  her experiment.

• Experiments don't need

  multiple trials.

• Experiments should be

  replicable by others.