PMA Science

A basic principle for scientific research is that the experiment must be able to be replicated. What happens when an experiment is replicated?

• A scientist publisher accepts the experimental results for printing.

• No one in the scientific community agrees with the methods or results.

• Other scientists perform the same experiment and get comparable results

• The scientific researcher preforms the experiment many times and gets the same results.

The scientific community communicates its finding to the rest of the world by publishing its work in scientific journals. This enables others to replicate and repeat other scientists’ experiments to accept or reject the hypothesis and conclusions of others. However, individual scientists do not submit their work to the scientific community before making sure they are right. How best can they ensure that their results are valid?

• Scientists hire editors to review their lab reports to make sure that their explanations are clear and concise and to change anything that doesn’t sound good.

• Scientists partner with mathematicians to check over all their data and charts and graphs to ensure that there is enough data, but if not, they can add to the data.

• Scientists repeat their experiments just a few times to show that they can get the same results more than once and to catch any mistakes in the procedure.

• The scientists repeat their experiments over and over many times to ensure that they have taken everything into consideration to communicate quality results.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-4

What is the best way to make sure your data is accurate in an experiment?

• Do research

• Do your experiment multiple times

• Make a prediction

• Form a conclusion

Tags

NGSS.MS-PS1-2

NGSS.MS-PS3-4

Replication is when one scientist

• copies another scientist's experiment.

• laughs at another scientist's experiment.

• repeats their own experiment several times.

• clones another scientist.

Repetition is when one scientist

• copies another scientist's experiment.

• bumps into another scientists.

• repeats their own experiment several times.

• clones a T. rex.

A _____________________ is something that scientists use to represent an object or process

• mass
• matter
• model
• weight

___________________ is an explanation for many observations

• meniscus
• weight
• law
• theory

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-2

Sal is studying the solar system. He makes a physical model using different-sized foam balls to represent the planets. Which best describes why a physical model is a useful tool for studying the solar system?

• Solar system models can be used to study a system that is too big to study directly.
• A model of the solar system eliminates the need for scientists to study the solar system directly.
• A model of the solar system provides an exact replica of the actual solar system, so scientists can experience what each planet is like.
• A model of the solar system can provide more data about the solar system than direct observations.

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-2

NGSS.MS-ETS1-4

A _____________________ is something that scientists use to represent an object or process

• mass
• matter
• model
• weight

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS1-2

When scientists create a representation of a complex process, they are:

• inferring
• predicting
• classifying
• making models