1. Qualitative vs. Quantitative
By Mrs. Gilmore & Mrs. Craft

2. What is an observation? Answer:
When you observe, you become aware of something using one of your senses. Your five senses are smell, taste, sight, touch, and sound. In an observation you simply describe something as it appears.
An observation is a statement describing a fact.

3. What is an observation? It’s evidence!!
There are two types of observations
Qualitative
Quantitative

4. Qualitative Observations
Qualitative observations describe what we observe.
“Qualitative” = quality (describes)
These observations use adjectives to describe something.
Example: The flower has white petals.
Example: Mr. M has blue eyes.

5. Quantitative Measurements
Quantitative observations measure what we observe.
“Quantitative” = quantity (measures)
These observations use numbers to measure something in a quantitative way.
Example: The flower has seven petals.
Example: Mr. M has two eyes.

6. Left side - Observation
On the left side, record 5 observations about your science classroom

7. Left side Label your observations as qualitative or quantitative.
Which observations do you feel would be more useful to describe this room to someone. Why?

8. Which is better?
Both types are valuable in science. In experiments, though, quantitative observations can be precisely and objectively compared.
Qualitative: The road is long. (describes)
Quantitative: The road is 5 km long. (measures)

9. Which is better?
For example, someone might say that a dead fish is smelly.
It is hard to know just how smelly the fish is.
Scientist, can however, make this more quantitative, by using a rating system.
If you rate the “smelliness” on a scale of 1-5, you now can now compare values and graph this information.