Nature of Science Quiz

A biology student designed an experiment to test music on plant growth. She set up five plants in a soundproof room with music playing continuously during daylight hours. She put five other plants in a second soundproof room with no music playing. She set up a bank of grow-lights in each room and gave all plants the same amount of water, fertilizer, soil, and light.In the above example, what is the independent variable?

• type of fertilizer used

• amount of growth seen

• types of plants used

• music playing

A biology student designed an experiment to test music on plant growth. She set up five plants in a soundproof room with music playing continuously during daylight hours. She put five other plants in a second soundproof room with no music playing. She set up a bank of grow-lights in each room and gave all plants the same amount of water, fertilizer, soil, and light.In the above example, what is the dependent variable?

• Music played

• type of plants used

• type of fertilizer used

• amount of growth recorded

A biology student designed an experiment to test music on plant growth. She set up five plants in a soundproof room with music playing continuously during daylight hours. She put five other plants in a second soundproof room with no music playing. She set up a bank of grow-lights in each room and gave all plants the same amount of water, fertilizer, soil, and light.

In this example the student used the same amount of fertilizer and amount of water. Why?

• those are the dependent variables

• those are the independent variables

• those are the controls also called constants

• the student felt like it

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

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

• yes
• no

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

You conduct an experiment and find that your results do not match the results of the other scientists. What should you do next?

• redo your experiment

• tell the other scientists that they are wrong

• change your results to match the previous results

• write up your results and continue to the next step

Maria believes that light colored clothes are cooler to wear than dark colored clothes because they do not absorb as much of the sun's rays. How should she write her hypothesis?

• My hypothesis is that light colored clothes are cooler than dark colored clothes.

• Light colored clothes are cooler to wear than dark colored clothes.

• If light colored clothes are worn, then they will be cooler because they are lighter in color.

• If light colored clothes are worn, then they will be cooler because they absorb less energy from the Sun.

Ben makes five paper helicopters with different wing lengths. He drops them the same way from a height of two meters for five trials each. He records the amount of time it takes for each helicopter to fall to the ground.

What is the independent variable?

• Dropping the same way

• Wing Length

• Amount of time it takes the helicopter to hit the floor

• Dropping from the same height

Ben makes five paper helicopters with different wing lengths. He drops them the same way from a height of two meters for five trials each. He records the amount of time it takes for each helicopter to fall to the ground.

What is the dependent variable?

• Dropping the same way

• Wing Length

• Amount of time it takes the helicopter to hit the floor

• Dropping from the same height