1. Warm Up
Why is biology important? List 3 reasons biology is (or should be) important to YOU.

2. Why is Biology Important?
Genetic testing & information
Medicines, vaccines, treatments
Cause & effect relationships (cell phones + radio waves)
Environment
Health
Ability to make informed decisions

3. THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
WHAT IS SCIENCE?

4. WHAT IS SCIENCE?
Way of investigating the world in order to form rules about what causes things to happen.

5. THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD (PROCESS) INCLUDES:
1. Observation: Perceiving objects or events using senses
Example: Our plants tend to grow or lean toward the windows.

6. SCIENTIFIC METHOD CONT’D
2. Ask questions about observation
Why do the plants tend to lean or grow toward the windows?

7. SCIENTIFIC METHOD CONT’D
3. Form hypothesis – testable explanation (educated guess) & make predictions (what you think will happen)

8. Hypothesis: What reasons or factors can you list that might cause a plant to lean or grow toward a window?
For example, do you think that
plants respond to the glass from which they absorb some needed nutrient
plants respond to the light which they need to make their food
plants respond to fresh air leaking in the window  
plants are attracted to the plants outside the window

9. Our hypothesis is…
Plants respond to light which they need to make food.

10. SCIENTIFIC METHOD CONT’D
4. Perform experiments – controlled tests, to test hypothesis
TERMS TO KNOW:
Experiment – controlled test
Control group – group NOT exposed to variable
Experimental group – group exposed to the variable
Independent variable – manipulated variable (the one you change)
Dependent variable – responding variable (result)

11. SCIENTIFIC METHOD CONT’D
5. Draw conclusions
Once data is collected & analyzed, conclusions can be drawn.
Plants lean toward the windows because they respond to the light which helps them make food.

12. SCIENTIFIC METHOD CONT’D
6. Report conclusions
Theory: Set of related hypotheses that have been tested and confirmed many times by many scientists.
Future evidence may cause revision (which means that theories can change, but this rarely happens).

13. See if you can determine the hypothesis:NM