Nature of Science

Jane is investigating to find out if bean plants grow taller in

ordinary topsoil or special potting soil over a three week period.She sets up her investigation with 10 bean plants of equal size in each type of soil.

What should Jane do each day to make sure she gets valid

results?

• Water only the plants in special potting soil.

• Measure the plant height for each soil type.

• Move the plants in ordinary topsoil to different locations.

• Estimate the height of each plant's stem and record the

  estimate.

Tags

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Thomas and Julie wanted to find out which material would insulate their teacher's coffee cup and keep the coffee hot for the longest period of time. They first wrapped her cup with bubble wrap and recorded the temperature of the coffee once every 15 minutes for 2 hours. They repeated the investigation, this time using newspaper instead of bubble wrap, but they got the same results for both materials. What could they do to make sure their results are valid?

• Repeat their experiment

• Use tea instead of coffee

• Use a different thermometer

• Conduct their investigation in a colder room

Tags

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Brianna's class wants to determine if boys or girls recycled

more paper each day. They set up separate recycling bins in

the classroom and labeled them "Boys" and "Girls." The

students then placed their paper items in the right bins. Which of the following should the students do each day before emptying the bins?

• Make lists of the different types of paper in each bin.

• Count and record the number of paper items recycled in each bin.

• Make a list of which student recycled which paper item in each of the bins.

• Record their estimate of numbers of times students placed items in each bin.

Kevin wanted to find out which of his toy cars, the Corvette or the Mustang, would roll downhill faster. He made a ramp by putting several books under one end of a board so that the board was slanted. Which would be the best way for him to perform his experiment?

• Roll each car down the ramp separately five times and estimate which car looked faster.

• Roll both cars down the ramp together one time and see which one gets to the bottom first.

• Roll each car down the ramp separately one time, and time them with the second hand on his watch.

• Roll both cars down the ramp together five times and record which gets to the bottom first each time.

Tags

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Christopher uses the data on several packages of cereal to find out the amount of fat in one serving of each cereal. What best describes of the type of investigation Christopher is doing?

• experiment

• interview

• observation

• survey

Kimberly made a model to show the spinning of a tornado. She filled a 2-liter soda bottle with water. Then she connected it neck-to-neck with an empty 2-liter bottle. She flipped the water-filled bottle upside down and turned it a few times. What is the difference between this activity and an experiment?

• This activity is not repeatable

• There are no well-defined variables

• No prediction was made before the activity began

• The activity is not done under controlled conditions

Greg read the following facts about sow bugs.

A Sow bug bodies are made up of 7 segments.

B Sow bugs are crustaceans.

C Sow bugs have 14 legs.

D Sow bugs avoid light.

Greg can investigate all of these statements. Greg can do an

experiment to test the accuracy of one of the statements.

Which statement can he test?

• Statement A

• Statement B

• Statement C

• Statement D

Tammy is investigating whether a person’s height remains the same all day long. She is going to measure the heights of 5 of her friends at different times of the day.What best describes the type of investigation Tammy is doing?

• demonstration

• experiment

• interview

• survey

Dora thinks that there are more frogs in the pond by her

house when the water temperature is higher. She is

making a chart to use as she gathers data to see whether

she is correct. What data should Dora record on her chart?

• Time, air temperature, water temperature

• data, time, air temperature, number of frogs

• date, time, water temperature, number of frogs

• date, air temperature, wind speed, number of frogs

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-1

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Chloe wonders what type of string is best for growing crystals. She uses 4 types of string. She puts them all in glasses with the same baking-powder solution. Then she observes the crystal growth. How do you know that Chloe is doing an experiment?

• She will form conclusion about the type of string that is best

• She is observing how well crystals grow on each string

• All conditions expect string types are constant

• Before she started, she made a plan

Tags

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