Scientific Method Review State Standards: Investigation and Experimentation
What the state expects:
Review notes The scientific method is a series of steps that scientists use to answer questions and solve problems. Any information you gather through your senses is an observation. Observations often lead to questions or problems A hypothesis is a possible explanation or answer to a question. A good hypothesis is testable
Review notes after you test a hypothesis, you should analyze your results and draw conclusions about whether tour hypothesis was supported. Communicating your findings (data) allows others to certify your results or continue to investigate your problem. A scientific theory is the result of many investigations and many hypotheses that have been supported over time.
Review notes Scientific models are representatives of objects or systems. Models make difficult concepts easier to understand. Models can represent things too small to see or too large to observe directly Models can be used to test hypotheses and illustrate theories
Definitions to Know scientific method: a series of steps that scientists use to answer questions and solve problems hypothesis: a possible explanation or answer to a question data: any information that results from experimentation observation: any use of the senses to gather information
Definitions to Know area: the amount of surface an object has density: the amount of matter in a given space; mass per unit volume (density = mass/volume) volume: the amount of space that something occupies or the amount of space that something contains mass; the amount of matter that something is made of; does not change with the objects location
Definitions to Know meter: the basic unit of length in the SI system temperature: the measure of how hot (or cold) something is control group: the part of a controlled experiment that contains all of the same variable and constants as the experimental group but the independent variable is NOT changed
Definitions to Know variable: any factor in a scientific investigation that can have more than one value. In an experiment it is what is being tested AND measured slope: a number describing how steep a plotted line on a graph is; equal to the rise divided by the run.
Scientific Method
Answers: 3. F 4. A 5. C 6. B 7. E 8. D
Math In Science 1. a cereal box has a mass of 340g. its dimensions are 27cm x 19cm x 6 cm. what is the volume of the box?
Math In Science 1. a cereal box has a mass of 340g. its dimensions are 27cm x 19cm x 6 cm. what is the volume of the box? Answer: volume = 27cm x 19cm x 6cm = 3078 cm3
Math In Science 2. Each of two cement building blocks has a volume of 2.5L. The mass of block A is 5kg, and the mass of block B is 7kg. find the difference in the densities of the two blocks (density = mass / volume)
Answer: Block A: D= 5kg/2.5L = 2.0 kg/L Block B; D= 7kg/2.5L = 2.8 kg/L Block B is more dense than Block A; the difference is 0.8 kg/L
Variables & Controls: 3. Imagine that you are conducting an experiment in which you are testing the effects of the height of a ramp on the speed at which a toy car goes down the ramp. What is the variable in this experiment? What factors must be controlled?
Answer: The variable is the height of the ramp. Controlled factors include the type of car, the material the ramp is made of, and the point from which the car is released.
Calculating Area: 3. a. A = 1/2 x 7m x 8m = 28 m2 b. A=12cm x 3cm = 36 cm2 c. 11m x 11m =121m2 d. A= 180 cm2 + 630 cm2 = 810 cm2 e. A= 1.05m2 + 10.5m2 + 5.25m2 = 16.8m2
Finding Volume: 1. a. V= 10m x 7m x5m = 350m3 b. V= 3.5cm x 3.5cm x3.5cm= 42.875cm3 c . V=0.25cm x 0.5cm x 3cm = 0.375cm3 d. 8 cm x 6cm x 300cm = 14,400 cm3
Challenge yourself: 50m x 2.5m = 125 m2 2500m3 / 125 m2 = 20m
What is a Ratio? 1 2. 3.