1. Topic: The Scientific Process
Unit 1: Chapter 1

2. What is the goal of Scientific Investigations?
Are the heart of science
Produce evidence that helps answer questions
May lead to new questions
Advance science

3. The Scientific Method-what are the steps?
A generalized set of steps scientists follow
Ask a question
Do background research
Construct a hypothesis
Test your hypothesis by designing an experiment
Analyzing your data and drawing conclusions
Reporting your results
There is no required pathway for the scientific method
Sometimes steps are skipped, sometimes they are repeated

4. What is a hypothesis? Definitions:
Potential answer to a question that can be tested by gathering information
“an educated guess”

5. What makes a Hypothesis “Scientific”
Not all hypotheses are created equal
Scientific hypotheses must meet two requirements:
Must be testable
Must be falsifiable
Testable
Can be tested with observations that agree or disagree with the hypothesis
Falsifiable
Can be shown to be false if it really is false

6. Is it possible to “prove” a scientific hypothesis?
It takes just one exception to disprove a scientific hypothesis
Proving that a scientific hypothesis is true is essentially impossible
In science we use the term support/supported to describe hypotheses that have never been disproven

7. What does a good experiment require?
Experiments are controlled scientific studies of specific variables
Variables:
Factor that can take on different values
There must be at least two variables in any experiment
Manipulated variable (independent variable)
Variable that is changed by the researcher
Responding variable (dependent variable)
Variable that the researcher predicts will change if the manipulated variable changes

8. What is an experimental control variable?
Controls are variables that must be held constant so they won’t influence the outcome of an experiment
If control variables are not held constant it is impossible to determine exactly what is causing your dependent variable to change

9. What is a “unit” and why are they important?
Definition:
A standard quantity used for measurement
Units were invented so people could communicate amounts to each other
For communication to be successful, everyone’s idea of any unit of measure must be the same

10. What are SI units? SI stands for International System of Units
We commonly refer to it as the Metric System
Almost all fields of science us metric units when gathering data
Easier to work with and convert
Based on prefixes

11. English vs. Metric (SI)

12. Topic: Distance, Speed, and Velocity
Unit 1: Chapter 1

13. What is Distance and how do we measure it?
Definition:
Describes how far it is from one point to another
Distance is measured in units of length
The SI unit for length is the meter (m)
Short distances are measured in centimeters (cm)
Long distances are measure in kilometers (km)

14. What is Speed and how do we measure it?
Definition:
How fast or slow something moves
Speed determines how far something travels in a given amount of time
The SI unit for speed is meters per second (m/s)
Other common units for speed
Kilometers per hour (km/h)
Miles per hour (mph)
Centimeters per second (cm/sec)

15. What is average speed?
Even if speed varies during a trip, it is possible to calculate average speed
Practice:
It took an airplane 3,600 seconds to travel 540 km. What was the average speed of the airplane?
What is the speed of a car that traveled 75 km in 1.5 hours?