A series of steps used by scientists to solve a problem or answer a question. 

• scientific method
• recipe
• data collection
• metric system

What is an observation?

• A scientific statement based on an educated guess

• A simple statement that uses your 5 senses to describe an event

• To be unaware of your surroundings

• The potential question that you want to answer

Which of the following is a quantitative observation?

• The bird is very colorful

• The bird weighs 5.8 kilograms

• The bird has many feathers

• The scientific name of this bird is Pavo cristatus

Which of the following is a qualitative observation?

• The bird is blue, brown, green and yellow

• It's pretty

• The bird weighs 8.6 kg

• It is 130 cm tall

Theory or Law???  Is a well-tested EXPLANATION for a wide range of observations and experimental results.

• Law
• Theory

Theory or Law???  Is a DESCRIPTION of what a scientists expects to happen every time under a certain set of conditions.

• Law
• Theory

Explaining or interpreting the things you observe based on reasoning from what you already know is called

• observing

• inferring

• predicting

• classifying

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-2

A possible explanation to a problem or question that has not yet been tested. 

• data
• theory
• hypothesis
• fact

Why do we want to test one variable at a time?

• Because it is hard to setup a data table with more than one variable

• To know what is causing the changes- this helps us understand cause and effect

• It takes longer, so scientists get paid more

This part of the experiment serves as a basis of comparison; the one variable being tested has been omitted. (not changed)

• experimental group
• control group
• data
• variables