Chapter 1: What Is Science

Question 0

What is observing?

Answer 0

Observing means using one or more of your senses to gather information. It also means using tools such as a microscope to help your senses.

Question 1

What is science?

Answer 1

Science is a way of learning about the natural world.

Question 2

What is inferring?

Answer 2

Explaining or interpreting the things you observe.

Question 3

What is predicting?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What is classifying?

Answer 4

Classifying is the grouping together of items that are alike in some way.

Question 5

What is evaluating?

Answer 5

Evaluating involves comparing observations and data to reach a conclusion about them.

Question 6

What is making models?

Answer 6

Making models involves creating representations of complex objects or processes.

Question 7

What are variables?

Answer 7

Factors that can change in an experiment.

Question 8

What is an independent variable?

Answer 8

A factor that is changed to test a hypothesis.

Question 9

What is a dependent variable?

Answer 9

A factor that changes in response to the Independent variable.

Question 10

What is quantitative?

Answer 10

Taking observations about numbers.

Question 11

What is qualitative?

Answer 11

Making observations about things other than numbers.

Question 12

What is an attitude that drive scientists?

Answer 12

Curiosity.

Question 13

What is honesty?

Answer 13

Honesty is what good scientists do like always reporting your observations and results truthfully.

Question 14

What is creativity?

Answer 14

Coming up with inventive ways to solve problems or produce new things.

Question 15

What is skepticism?

Answer 15

Having an attitude of doubt.

Question 16

What is ethics?

Answer 16

Something that refers to the rules that enable people to know right from wrong.

Question 17

What is personal bias?

Answer 17

A person’s likes and dislikes.

Question 18

What is cultural bias?

Answer 18

An opinion that comes from how you were brought up.

Question 19

What is experimental bias?

Answer 19

A mistake in the design of an experiment that makes a particular result more likely.

Question 20

What is objective reasoning?

Answer 20

Objective reasoning means that you make decisions and draw conclusions based on available evidence.

Question 21

What is subjective?

Answer 21

Personal feelings have entered into a decision or conclusion.

Question 22

what is deductive reasoning?

Answer 22

Explaining things by starting with a general idea and then applying the idea to a specific observation.

Question 23

What is inductive reasoning?

Answer 23

Using specific observations to make generalizations.

Question 24

What is the metric system?

Answer 24

A measurement system based on the number 10.

Question 25

What is the international system of units or SI?

Answer 25

The standard system of measurement that allows scientists to compare data and communicate with each other about the results.

Question 26

What is mass?

Answer 26

Mass is a measure of the amount of matter in an object.

Question 27

What is weight?

Answer 27

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

Question 28

What is volume?

Answer 28

The amount of space and object or that the substance takes up.

Question 29

What is a meniscus?

Answer 29

The curve at the top of the liquid.

Question 30

What is density?

Answer 30

A measure of how much mass is contained in a given volume.

Question 31

What is an estimate?

Answer 31

An approximation of a number based on reasonable assumptions.

Question 32

What is accuracy?

Answer 32

Accuracy refers to how close a measurement is to the true or excepted value.

Question 33

What is precision?

Answer 33

Precision refers to how close a group of measurements are to each other.

Question 34

What is the percent error?

Answer 34

Percent error calculations are a way to determine how accurate an experimental value is.

Question 35

What is the mean?

Answer 35

Is the numerical average of a set of data.

Question 36

What is the median?

Answer 36

The median is the middle number in a set of data.

Question 37

What is mode?

Answer 37

The mode is the number that appears most often in a list of numbers.

Question 38

What is the range?

Answer 38

The range of a set of data is the difference between the greatest value and the least value in the set.

Question 39

What is anomalous data?

Answer 39

Anomalous data is data that does not fit with the rest of its data set.

Question 40

What is a graph?

Answer 40

A graph is a picture of your data.

Question 41

What is a linear graph?

Answer 41

A linear graph is a line graph in which the data points yields a straight line.

Question 42

What is a nonlinear graph?

Answer 42

The kind of graph in which the data points do not fall along a straight line.

Question 43

What is the scientific inquiry?

Answer 43

Scientific inquiry refers to the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose explanations based on the evidence they gather.

Question 44

What is a hypothesis?

Answer 44

A hypothesis is a possible answer to a scientific question.

Question 45

What is a controlled experiment?

Answer 45

And experiment in which only one variable is manipulated at a time.

Question 46

What is data?

Answer 46

Are the facts figures and other evidence gathered through qualitative and quantitative observations.

Question 47

What is repetition?

Answer 47

Repeating your experiment more than once.

Question 48

What is replication?

Answer 48

When another scientist repeats your experiment to get the same results.