EIM Vocab1

Evaluation of Models, Inferences, and Experimental Results

Finding Basic Information

Vocabulary

System

This is a group of interdependent organs with similar function.

Ex: muscular, skeletal, nervous

Closed System

This is a type of system that allows energy but not matter across its system boundary.

Ex: The water cycle with the closed system of Earth.

System Boundary

In system design, this means choosing which parts are inside the system and which are outside the system or part of the environment.

System Boundary

Designed System

This is a system in which people set boundaries, define subsystems and parts, and may predict inputs and outputs to the system.

Ex: Building a factory; the American banking system; a computer.

Model

A small object, usually built to scale, that represents in detail another, often larger object.

ex: A hot wheels car

Conceptual Model

This is a type of diagram which shows of a set of relationships between factors that are believed to impact or lead to a target condition; a diagram that defines theoretical entities, objects, or conditions of a system and the relationships between them.

Conceptual Model

Positive Feedback

This is a feedback mechanism resulting in the amplification or growth of the output signal.

ex: Contractions at childbirth.

Negative Feedback

This is a decrease in function in response to a stimulus.

Ex:  When a human is hungry, metabolism slows down to conserve energy and allow the human to continue living with less food.

Observation

This is a process of watching an experiment and noting what occurs.

Ex: burning copper compounds give a bluish-green flame, monitoring the stars through a telescope

Quantitative

This is information from an experiment that can be assigned a number or a quantity and can often be used to construct a graph.

Multiple Choice

What comes after precipitation during the water cycle?

• evaporation

• sublimation

• condensation

• infiltration

Explanation:

After it rains or snows, some water moves from the surface of the ground into the ground. This is called infiltration.

Multiple Choice

78% of Earth's atmosphere is nitrogen gas. All living things need nitrogen as a part of DNA and RNA. Yet you and I, and other living things, cannot use the nitrogen in our atmosphere directly. One type of organism is responsible for "fixing" nitrogen or helping to put it in a form so other living things can use it. That organism is

• bacteria.

• fungi.

• plants.

• viruses.

Explanation:

Nitrogen fixing organisms are bacteria.

Nitrogen fixation is the process where N₂, or atmospheric nitrogen, is converted to ammonium. This is necessary because it is the only way that organisms can get nitrogen directly from the atmosphere. Certain bacteria are the only organisms that fix nitrogen through metabolic processes.

Multiple Choice

Compare the illustration above with the choices below. Which picture best represents the outcome according to the law of conservation of matter?

Explanation:

The image that contains the same number of each type of atom will match the picture according to the law of conservation of matter.

Multiple Choice

Elaborate on the relationship illustrated in the diagram.

• Moles are directly related to pressure.

• Temperature is inferred from pressure.

• Pressure is indirectly related to volume

• Volume is proportionally related to moles.

Explanation:

Pressure is indirectly related to volume.

As the volume increases at a constant temperature, the pressure decreases.