Scientific Method Review

Jack wonders if the temperature inside of a parked car on a sunny day is different than the outside temperature. Jack predicts that the temperature inside of the car will be higher than outside. If Jack is going to treat his prediction like a scientist would, what should he do next?

• decide that he is wrong
• make a different prediction
• test the prediction
• decide that he is right

Which of the following statements would be the best hypothesis for an investigation studying weather systems?

• Why do plants need water to grow?
• Crickets chirp more often when it rains.
• If the air pressure rises, then it is more likely to rain.
• How do birds know how to fly south in the winter?

Pieces of information gathered using the five senses are

• inference
• conclusion
• observations
• predictions

Vicky wanted to investigate water evaporation. She placed 50 mL of distilled water in three identical glass jars. She left one jar in the sunlight, one jar in the dark, and one jar in a shady area. After four hours, she measured how much water was still in each jar. Which of the following variables was held constant in the experiment?

• light exposure
• air temperature
• amount of water in jars at the end of the investigation
• amount of water placed in jars

Suppose you are designing a submarine. Which of the following animals would be most helpful to study when working on your design?

• shark
• eagle 
• earthworm
• beetle

A scientist studying lizards observes that they run faster on the day he feeds the lizards vitamins with their meals. What hypothesis could explain why the lizards are performing better? 

• Vitamins make the lizards tired.
• Lizards like the taste of vitamins.
• Vitamins give the lizards more energy.
• Lizards should only eat vitamins, not food

Mark is performing an investigation to determine what type of fertilizer helps a plant grow best. He plants ten plants of the same type in a garden and gives them all the same amount of water and fertilizer each day. However, he gives each plant a different type of fertilizer.
Which variable in the experiment should Mark control (or keep constant)?

• amount of fertilizer given daily
• location of the plants
• amount of water given daily
• all of these

Jaden is doing an experiment to find out if plants grow taller when given plain water or sugar water. To make sure his experiment is a fair test, Jaden should

• use one kind of plant for the sugar water group and a different kind for the plain water group.
• treat both groups of plants the same except for the amount of sugar in the water
• give the sugar water plants twice as much water as the plain water plants.
• put some plants in a warm, sunny spot and put the others in the shade.

Valerie hypothesizes that frogs lay more eggs in warm water than in cold water. When Valerie designs her experiment, what should be the only variable that changes?

• water flow rates
• frog species
• time of year
• water temperature

What is the difference between a prediction and a random guess?

• A prediction is not based on any earlier knowledge or logic

• Predictions are always right.

• A prediction is based on prior knowledge or logic.

• A random guess is never right