1. Vocabulary
Part 1

2. Science
A way of learning about the natural world.

3. Observing
Using one or more of your senses to gather information.

4. Inferring
When you explain or interpret the things you observe.

5. Predicting
Making a statement or a claim about what will happen in the future based on past experience or evidence

6. Classifying
Grouping together of items that are alike in some way.

7. Evaluating
Comparing observations and data to reach a conclusion.

8. Hypothesis
A possible answer to a scientific question (educated guess).

9. Variable
Factors that can change in an experiment.

10. Independent Variable
Factor that is changed to test a hypothesis.

11. Dependent Variable
Factor that changes in response to the independent variable.

12. Controls
Parts of an experiment that never change.

13. Controlled Experiment
An experiment in which only one variable is changed.

14. Data
Facts, figures, and other evidence gathered through observation.

15. Quantitative
Observations that deal with numbers (quantity).

16. Qualitative
Observations that deal with descriptions that cannot be expressed in numbers (quality).

17. Metric System
Measurement system based on the number 10.

18. SI (International System of Units)
Version of the metric system used by modern scientists.

19. Mass
A measure of the amount of matter in an object (mg, g, kg).

20. Weight
A measure of the force of gravity acting on an object.

21. Volume
The amount of space that an object or substance takes up (L, mL, m3, cm3).

22. Meniscus
The bottom curve of a liquid, used to measure volume.

23. Density
A measure of mass in a given volume (kg/m3, g/cm3, g/mL).

24. Graph
A picture of your data.

25. Linear Graph
Data points follow a straight line.

26. Nonlinear Graph
Data points do not follow a straight line (often curve).