The Scientific Process Unit Test

Which serves as evidence for a scientific claim?

• surveys of public opinion

• company advertisements

• controlled experiments

• personal websites

Which is a scientific claim?

• At least 75 percent of the class will pass the physical science test today because they studied more than two hours for it.

• According to the star of the number-one teen TV show, crushed rosemary and olive oil spread over pimples will draw out the bacteria and prevent scarring

• Plants fertilized once per week with Super Plant Food Formula have been shown in testing to produce twice as much fruit as plants that are not.

Scientists in a particular field strive for the same quality of work because they know their peers will be reviewing their scientific claims. What does this review process help ensure?

• standards of the profession

• publication in scientific journals

• resistance to new information

Read the passage about the health risks of single-load liquid laundry packets.

These packets are filled with concentrated, toxic chemicals. A 7-month-old in Florida died from swallowing the soap. Several soap and detergent companies are conducting studies to address these safety concerns; they want to reduce toxicity and to make the packets look less like candy. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is also performing studies to build more safety into these products.

Why would the CPSC perform studies when other soap and detergent companies have already conducted research on the same products?

• The CPSC is the only organization that can test the safety of soaps and detergents.

• Studies conducted by any company that benefits financially are considered unreliable.

• studies performed by the CPSC give reliability to the results of improved safety obtained by each soap company.

After a group of researchers conducts a new experiment that has never been conducted before, what is the best way for other scientists to make sure that the data is real?

• interviewing the researchers

• conducting the experiment again

• reading the experiment’s procedure

Which charts or graphs always use axes both labeled with quantitative values and show individual points of data, meaning that each point matches with one value on the x-axis and one value on the y-axis? Check all that apply.

• histograms

• scatterplots

• line graphs

• pie graphs

• bar graphs

Chelsi has talked to her artist friends about how much money they earn each year from working in the arts. She gathers these values from seven people: [$1,500; $6,700; $2,200; $8,100; $50,500; $12,000; $2,200].

What is the median of this data set?

• $2,200

• $6,700

• $7,400

• $11,900

A scientist counts the number of bacteria colonies growing in each of six lab dishes.

Why is 13 considered to be the mode of this data set?

• It is the most likely number of colonies that would grow in a dish

• It is in the center of the range of the number of colonies.

• It is the data value that appears the most often in the set.

• It is the ideal number of colonies that the scientist should grow.

Which is the order of microscopes, from greatest magnification to the least?

• scanning tunneling → transmission electron → compound light

• scanning tunneling → compound light → transmission electron

• transmission electron → scanning tunneling → compound light

• compound light → transmission electron → scanning tunneling

Which technology has helped improve scientists’ ability to gather scientific data about the movement of sea turtles?

• satelite tracking

• thermometersf

• probeware

• microscopes