McGraw Hill - Nature of Science Review

Hannah has many questions about the birds that visit Florida during the year. Which is the most useful question for a science investigation?

• Do the birds enjoy Florida’s weather the same way that people do?

• Which is the prettiest bird that visits Florida?

• Do all the birds leave and arrive in Florida at the same times of the year or at different times?

• Should a bird replace oranges on the license plates for Florida?

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Sandra visits a Florida farm that raises silkies, a breed of chicken. Sandra did not know that chickens have breeds, just as dogs and cattle have breeds. Which is the best way that Sandra could learn more about chicken breeds?

• Visit the website of a restaurant that serves chicken.

• Try to hatch chicken eggs that are bought from the supermarket.

• Visit a gardening center that keeps a rooster as a mascot.

• Read a book about chicken breeds from the school library.

Jorge asks if dinosaurs ever lived in Florida, and if so, what the dinosaurs were like. Which provides the strongest evidence for an answer to this question?

• No Florida sports teams are named after dinosaurs.

• No fossils of dinosaurs have been found in Florida.

• Some museums in Florida display exhibits of dinosaurs.

• Someone wrote a story about a dinosaur that visited Orlando.

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Sabina and Max have been investigating rainbows. They observe many examples of rainbows in the sky. They also observe photographs of rainbows that others have taken. They include this paragraph in their report.

All of the rainbows were beautiful! They always had the same colors in the same order. The bands also had the same shape, which is a section of a circle.

Does the paragraph include observations, opinions, or both?

• The paragraph includes observations only.

• The paragraph includes opinions only.

• The paragraph begins with an opinion and then presents observations only.

• The paragraph mixes observations and opinions in every sentence.

A condition of an experiment that can be changed is the?

• variable

• hypothesis

• control

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A ________ is a scientific prediction that can be tested?

• variable

• hypothesis

• control

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The variable in an experiment that remains unchanged is the ________?

• variable

• hypothesis

• control

A local farmer grows strawberries and several crops in Florida. He begins to wonder if the large amounts of rainwater will begin to damage his crops. In an effort to find out, he designs an experiment in which he deeply soaks the soil under some of the strawberry plants. He then compares the growth of these plants with the rest of his strawberry crops.

What is the control in his experiment?

• The strawberry plants that have soaked soil

• The strawberry plants that do not have soaked soil

• All plants on the farm, except for the strawberry plants

• The strawberry plants that are damaged by heavy rain

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Mr. Arthur, the science teacher, says that adding salt or sugar can make a pot of water boil at a higher temperature. Matt and Karen decide to investigate this claim.

With the teacher’s supervision, Matt and Karen prepare mixtures of water with salt or sugar, boil the mixtures on a hot plate, and use a digital thermometer to measure the temperature of the boiling mixture.

The data table shows their results.

When Mr. Arthur reviews the data, he suggests that an error occurred during one of the trials. Which trial most likely was performed incorrectly?

• Trial 1

• Trial 3

• Trial 4

• Trial 6

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Mario and Albert want to investigate which playing surface allows a soccer ball to roll across it at the greatest speed. They decided to test using a field with long grass, short grass, sand, clay, and concrete. Mario is planning to perform an experimental investigation. Albert is planning a descriptive investigation at a soccer field. Albert’s investigation will not include an experiment. 

Based on the two investigations, what is different? 

• Only Albert will be observing soccer balls 

• Only Mario will observe soccer balls on different surfaces 

• Only Albert will be reporting her observation 

• Only Mario will test a hypothesis with variables and controls