Science - Practice of Science - Experiments vs Investigations

​Practice of SCIENCE

​​SC.5. N.1.2 Explain the difference between an experiment and other types of scientific investigation.

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​SC.5.N.1.4 Identify a control group and explain its importance in an experiment.

​The Practice of Science

3 Parts to the PRACTICE of SCIENCE

1. EXPERIMENTS
2. Knowing the DIFFERENCE between an EXPERIMENT and an INVESTIGATION
3. CONTROL GROUPS

Multiple Choice

The Practice of Science can be broken into 3 parts:

Experiments, _____________, Control Groups

• Knowing the difference between and Experiment and an Investigation

• Making Predictions

• Asking Questions

• Variables

​Experiments vs Investigations

​•Experiment - A scientific test or procedure that is carried out under controlled conditions to answer a scientific question.

​Experiments vs Investigations

​•Experiment – An experiment is when someone has CONTROL over most of the experiment. Think about a scientist or student in a lab or classroom deciding on what to test and how to do it.

​Experiments vs Investigations

​​•Investigation - An organized scientific study of the natural world that may include making systematic observations, asking questions, gathering information, analyzing data, summarizing results, drawing conclusions, and/or communicating results.

​Investigation - An investigation is when someone is mostly observing what is going on and may or may not have some control. Think about a scientist or student outside watching an animal or observing the weather.

​Experiments vs Investigations

Multiple Choice

What is the difference between an INVESTIGATION and an EXPERIMENT?

• In an investigation, someone has control over most of it

• In an investigation, there are observations taking place

• In an experiment, someone has control over most of it

• In an experiment, there are observations taking place

Multiple Choice

Rita is observing the behavior of blue jays that live in her yard and recording her observations. Simon is trying to find out how fertilizer affects the growth of bean plants. In which of the following ways is Simon’s science project different from Rita’s?

• Simon does not need to observe and record data.

• Simon must try to understand and interpret data.

• Simon must make a report in order to share the results.

• Simon must control variables that can affect results

​VARIABLES

Multiple Choice

What are the three types of variables?

• Independent Variable, Investigation, and Experiment

• Independent Variable, Dependent Variable, and Control

• Experiment, Investigations, and Controls

• Predictions, Observations, and Controls

Multiple Choice

Scientists who study hurricanes sometimes fly into the hurricanes to take readings from inside the storm. How does this differ from most scientific research?

• Hurricane scientists cannot collect data

• Hurricane scientists cannot draw conclusions

• Hurricane scientists cannot control variables

• Hurricane scientists cannot make hypothesis

Multiple Choice

A scientist thinks that gorillas can make and use simple tools. To see if she was right, she watched a group of gorillas for 30 days and kept track of any tools that they made or used. How was her investigation different from an experiment?

• She did not collect data

• She did not come up with a hypothesis

• She did not draw any conclusions

• She did not have a control group

Multiple Choice

Rebecca performs two investigations, A and B, to study how temperature affects humidity. In Investigation A, Rebecca records temperature and humidity information from weather charts of different geographical areas in her notebook. In Investigation B, she measures the humidity in a large container at different temperatures in the laboratory. She records the temperature and resulting humidity levels in her notebook.

• Investigation A was a controlled experiment since it used charts for different areas.

• Investigation B was a controlled experiment since other factors were kept constant

• Investigation A was a controlled experiment since it used charts for different areas.

• Both investigations were controlled experiments since they measured environmental factors.