MOSI 1

You watch as a colony of ants builds a large mound of dirt outside. What is the name of this first step of the scientific method?

•  Analysis
• Observation
• Hypothesis
• Conclusion

During your research, you may have questions about ants' behavior that you can create an experiment to answer. Which of these is NOT a good question to ask?

• How long does it take to build an ant mound?
• What types of food do ants eat?
• What are ants' favorite games to play?
• Do ants prefer to work at night or in the day?

You decide to use four different types of foods to see what the ants prefer to eat. What step of the scientific method are you designing now?

• Experiment
• Analysis
• Justification
• Conclusion

Researchers have two groups of children. One group is watching violent cartoons and the other group is watching nonviolent cartoons. Researchers are counting the number of violent acts in their children's play. The cartoon is the _______.

• dependent variable
• hypothesis
• independent variable
• stable variable

A scientist conducted an experiment to determine how the amount of salt in a body of water affects the number of plants that can live in the water. In this experiment the dependent variable is

• the amount of salt in the water
• the temperature of the water
• the water
• the number of plants in the water

Which of the following is NOT one of the six key steps of the scientific method?

• Theory
• Observation
• Experiment
• Hypothesis

Next, information must be gathered by __________ your question or problem

• Senses
• Control
• Researching 
• Solving

What question did the scientists who collected this data want to answer?

• Are there more earthworms in the soil in the spring or in the fall?
• What is the effect of plowing soil on the number of earthworms?
• How is the size of earthworms affected by the seasons?
• Does plowing soil affect how fast earthworms grow?

Where and when were the most earthworms found?

• unplowed soil, spring 1995
• unplowed soil, fall 1995
• unplowed soil, fall 1994
• plowed soil, spring 1994

The variable that is measured and changes as a result of something you have changed

• Independent variabble
• Dependent variable
• Controlled variable
• Intercedeing Variable