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Scientific Process
Scientific Method/Process Vocabulary
Term | Definition |
---|---|
observations | Information gathered by noticing facts and occurrences using your five senses. |
inferences | Educated guesses based on observations made and/or from prior knowledge/experiences. |
data | Facts, figures, and other evidence gathered through observations. There are two types of data: quantitative and qualitative. |
qualitative data | Information describing color, odor, shape, or some other physical characteristic. You use your 5 senses for this and no numbers! |
quantitative data | Data that is based on measuring or counting. Involves numbers! |
Question/Problem | Scientists think of a problem they want to solve and phrase it in the form of a question. The question must be testable! |
Hypothesis | A hypothesis is an educated guess based on your prior knowledge and research. It does not have to be correct, but you always reevaluate your hypothesis when writing your conclusion. |
Experiment | Perform a proper experiment to test your question. A proper experiment can only change one thing at a time! Record observations throughout the experiment. This is your data! |
Interpret/Analyze Data | You look at the data and try to notice patterns and figure out what the data tells you. Data is information that is gathered from your observations. |
Conclusion | A summary of what you have learned by performing your experiment. You should always reevaluate your hypothesis in your conclusion as well. You should use your DATA from the experiment TO SUPPORT YOUR ANSWER! |
Repeat | Repeating the experiment is important so you know that your results were not a random occurrence. For it to be proven, the pattern of the results should repeat time after time. If this happens, we can call the result a scientific theory. |
Independent Variable | The one thing you change in an experiment. |
Dependent Variable | The things you measure in the experiment. |
Constants | The things you keep the same in the experiment |
Control or control group | A group or setup used as a standard for comparison. |
Properties | characteristics used to describe an object or substance |
model | A representation of an object or event. All models have limitations, but they help us explain the object or event better. |
law | tells you what will happen |
theory | An explanation of why or how something happens. Must have a lot of evidence! |