Nature of Science Quiz

Carmen conducted an experiment to determine if listening to different types of music would affect a person’s pulse. Her hypothesis was that pulse rate would change with different types of music. Each person listened to seven different selections of music for 30 seconds each. Each person’s pulse was taken before the music and then after each 30-second interval of music. The pulses were taken again after the music selections were completed. Based on her experiment, Carmen concluded that a person’s pulse rate changed when the person listened to different types of music. What is Carmen missing from her experiment?

• a question
• a hypothesis
• a control group
• a description of the experiement

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS1-5

If a company claims that its product has been proven scientifically, which of the following should have taken place if the results are to be considered?

• The company should have held discussions with leading industry scientists.
• Technology should have been used in both the gathering of data and data analysis.
• Results should have been peer reviewed and repeated producing the same findings
• The results of the investigation should have been published in popular magazines

A student conducting an investigation to determine the effect of temperature on the metabolism of yeast. Yeast and sugar are added to water, the gas produced is captured, and its volume is recorded. Which variables should be held constant during this investigation?

• Mass of sugar and water temperature
• Mass of yeast and mass of sugar
• Volume of gas and water temperature
• Volume of gas and mass of yeast

Tags

NGSS.HS-PS1-5

NGSS.HS-PS3-4

Michael wants to test the effect that different concentrations of stomach acid will have on the dissolution of a particular kind of oral medication. As he sets up and completes his experiment, which of the following experimental designs would be most likely to help him answer his question?

• Allow several pills to soak in different amounts of acid of a single concentration and then measure the amount of dissolution on each.
• Prepare solutions of different acid concentrations, measure 50 mililiters of each into different beakers, and place the same type of pill of the same mass into the beakers.
• After allowing a pill to be exposed to one acid concentration, place it in different acid concentrations, and then measure the surface area that is dissolved.
• Prepare solutions of different acid concentrations, measure 50 milliliters of each into different beakers, and place different types of pills of the same mass into the beakers.

Tags

NGSS.MS-PS1-2

NGSS.MS-PS1-5

A scientist wanted to find out if the height of a shrub would make it more prone to frost damage. He found a hillside covered with shrubs and trimmed all the shrubs located at the bottom to one meter tall. He left the shrubs growing at the top of the hill untrimmed. They ranged from one to three meters tall. After a heavy frost, he found that 90% of the shorter shrubs had frost damage while only 10% of the tall shrubs did. He concluded that short shrubs were more likely to suffer frost damage than tall shrubs. When he submits his research report for review by other scientists, which of the following are they likely to criticize about his experiment?

• His hypothesis that shrub height might influence frost damage is not a question worth testing.
• His conclusion is inaccurate because the location of the shrubs on the hillside might also have contributed to where frost damage occurred.
• His methods of recording frost damage must have been biased toward tall shrubs since there was such a large difference in frost damage.
• His results are not valid because he had some shrubs in the tall group that were close to each other.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-4

When experimenting with the growth of a plant, a scientist uses three (of the same type of) plants, two different fertilizers, equal light, and equal water. What type of variable is the fertilizer?

• Dependent
• Independent
• Control
• Constant

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS1-5

After concluding the results of a test, a scientist might next:

• Make an observation
• Share information by publishing in a scientific journal
• Retest
• Analyze more data

Should experiments be repeated over and over to see if the results are the same each time?

• yes
• no

In an investigation into the uptake of a protein by cells, scientists immersed two cell types in solutions of this protein. The investigation was carried out at two different temperatures and the percentage of the protein taken up by the two cell types was recorded over 10 minutes. The data was presented in a table, as shown above. Which one of the following conclusions is supported by the data?

• The rate of uptake of this protein at 25 °C is not affected by cell type.
• The percentage of this protein taken up by Cell type 1 is not affected by temperature.
• The rate of uptake of this protein by Cell type 2 is faster at 37 °C than at 25 °C.
• If the experiment continued for another 10 minutes, the percentage of this protein taken up by Cell type 1 would increase.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS1-5

NGSS.MS-LS1-2

What is the general order of the steps of the scientific methods:

• question, experiment, hypothesis, analyze, results, conclusion, communicate results.
• question, hypothesis, experiment, analyze results, conclusion, communicate results
• question, hypothesis, experiment, analyze results, communicate results, conclusion
• all of the above

Tags

NGSS.HS-LS1-3

NGSS.HS-PS1-3