Nature of Science

How is science done?

Open Ended

What are the different ways that scientists conduct an investigation?

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3 Types of Scientific Investigation

Observational

Categorize

Options (6)

Organize the Investigation Scenarios I

into the right categories.

Observational

Experimental

Comparative

Investigation Scenario 1

A student wanted to know whether ants dig more tunnels in the
light or in the dark. She thought that ants in normal light that would dig more tunnels during the daytime. Ten ant colonies were set up in commercial ant farms with the same number and type of ants per ant farm. The same amount of food was given to each colony, and the colonies were in the
same temperature. Five of the colonies were exposed to normal room light and five were covered with black construction paper so they did not receive light. Every other day for three weeks the length of the tunnels was measured in millimeters using a string and a ruler. The data was recorded in the table below:

Methods in Science Debrief

Investigation Scenario 2

Roberto the weatherman was wondering one day
if the temperature of the day affects the amount of rain on that day.

He thinks that if it is a hotter day, it will rain less,
and if it is a cooler day it will rain more.

Roberto records the temperature and rain amounts each day over the course of 14 days and created the following graph.

Essential
Question

Hypothesis

Procedure

Independent

Variable

Dependent

Variable

Control

Day

1

3

5

7

911

13

15

17

19

21

Length
of
tunnels
in Light

51020

26

32

50

3166

90

95103

Length
of
tunnels
in Dark

71525

32

47

62

93110

115120

136

​Exit Tickets
Go to the next 3 slides to complete the quizzes

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