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S & T Chapter 1
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Science | a way of learning about the natural world |
| observing | the process of using one or more of your senses to gather information |
| quantitative observation | an observation that deals with a number or amount |
| qualitative observation | an observation that deals with characteristics that cannot be expressed in numbers |
| inferring | the process of making an inference, an interpretation based on observations and prior knowledge |
| predicting | the process of forecasting what will happen in the future based on past experience or evidence |
| classify | the process of grouping together items that are alike in some way |
| evaluating | comparing observations and data to reach a conclusion about them |
| making models | the process of creating reprnonstations |
| skepticism | an attitude of doubt |
| ethics | the rules that enable people to know right from wrong |
| personal bias | an outlook based on a person's likes and dislikes |
| cultural bias | An outlook influenced by the beliefs,social forms, and traits of a group |
| experiential bias | A mistake in the design of an experiment that makes a particular result more likely |
| objective | Describes the act of decision-making or drawing conclusions based on available evidence |
| subjective | Describes the influence of personal feelings on a decision or conclusion |
| deductive reasoning | A way to explain things by starting with a general idea and then applying the idea to a specific observation |
| inductive reasoning | Using specific observations to make generalizations |
| scientific inquiry | The ongoing process of discovery in science; the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose explanations based on evidence they gather |
| hypothesis | A possible explanation for a set of observations or answer to a scientific question;must be testable |
| variable | A factor that can change in an experiment |
| manipulated variable | The one factor that a scientist changes during an experiment; also called independent variable |
| responding variable | The factor that changes as a result of changes to the manipulated, or independent,variable in an experiment; also called dependent variable |
| controlled experiment | An experiment in which only one variable is manipulated at a time |
| data | Facts, figures, and other evidence gathered through observations |
| scientific theory | A well-tested explanation for a wide range of observations or experimental results |
| scientific law | A statement that describes what scientists expect to happen every time under a particular set of conditions |