Name _____________________________________________________________
The Nature of Science The Scientific Method
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This unit covers the following Intended Learning Outcomes.
1. Use Science Process and Thinking Skills
a. Observe simple objects, patterns, and events, and report
their observations.
b. Sort and sequence data according to criteria given.
d. Compare things, processes, and events.
f. Plan and conduct simple experiments.
g. Formulate simple research questions.
h. Predict results of investigations based on prior data.
i. Use data to construct a reasonable conclusion.
3. Understand Science Concepts and Principles
c. Solve problems appropriate to grade level by applying
science principles and procedures.
4. Communicate Effectively Using Science Language and Reasoning
a. Record data accurately when given the appropriate form
(e.g., table, graph, chart).
b. Describe or explain observations carefully and report with
pictures, sentences, and models.
c. Use scientific language in oral and written communication.
d. Use reference sources to obtain information and cite the
source.
e. Use mathematical reasoning to communicate information.
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Vocabulary You Should Know and Use
Analyze – Review the data from an experiment to find out what they mean.
Conclusion (Conclude) - The summary of an experiment, based on data.
Control Experiment – The actual experiment you conduct. For example, if you
are testing the effects of hot water on yeast, your control would be the hot
water.
Data – Information from an experiment.
Evidence – Data used to support a conclusion.
Experiment – A test that is done to support or disprove a hypothesis.
Hypothesis (hy-PAW-thuh-suhs) – An idea or question that can be tested.
Inference (Infer) – Assume a fact, without proof, based on previous experience.
Interpret – Explain what something means; explain results of an experiment.
Observe – To watch or look at something to get information.
Predict – Determine what you think will happen when you do an experiment
before you do the experiment.
Qualitative Observation – An observation about the quality of an object (it
smelled good, it was green, etc.).
Quantitative Observation – An observation that can be described or measured in
numerical terms (7 miles, 18 feet, 24 eggs, etc.).
Theory – A well-supported explanation for something that occurs in nature.
Variable – A part of an experiment that is changed.
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Place Scientific Method Criss-Cross Puzzle Here
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Can You Spot the Scientific Method?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Recognize a problem
Form a hypothesis
Test the hypothesis with an experiment
Draw conclusions
Each sentence below describes a step of the scientific method. Match each sentence
with a step of the scientific method listed below.
____ 1. Stephen predicted that seeds would start to grow faster if an electric current
traveled through the soil in which they were planted.
____ 2. Susan said, “If I fertilize my geranium plants, they will blossom.”
____ 3. Jonathan’s data showed that household cockroaches moved away from raw
cucumber slices.
____ 4. Rene grew bacteria from the mouth on special plates in the laboratory. She
placed drops of different mouthwashes on bacteria on each plate.
____ 5. Kathy used a survey to determine how many of her classmates were left-handed
and how many were right-handed.
____ 6. Jose saw bats catching insects after dark. He asked, “How do bats find the
insects in the dark?”
____7. Justin wondered if dyes could be taken out of plant leaves, flowers, and stems.
____ 8. Alice soaked six different kinds of seeds in water for 24 hours. Then she
planted the seeds in soil at a depth of I cm. She used the same amount of water, light,
and heat for each kind of seed.
____9. Bob read about growing plants in water. He wanted to know how plants could
grow without soil.
____ 10. Kevin said, “If I grow five seedlings in red light, I think the plants will grow
faster than the five plants grown in white light.”
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____ 11. Angela’s experiment proved that earthworms move away from light.
____ 12. Scott said, “If acid rain affects plants in a particular lake, it might affect
small animals, such as crayfish, that live in the same water.”
____ 13. Michael fed different diets to three groups of guinea pigs. His experiment
showed that guinea pigs need vitamin C and protein in their diets.
____ 14. Kim’s experiment showed that chicken eggshells were stronger when she gave
the hen feed, to which extra calcium had been added.
Scientific Method
Long ago, many people believed that living things could come from nonliving things. They
thought that worms came from wood and that maggots came from decaying meat. This
idea was called spontaneous generation. In 1668, an Italian biologist, Francesco Redi, did
experiments to prove that maggots did not come from meat. One of his experiments is
shown below.
Redi placed pieces of meat in several jars. He divided the jars into two groups. He
covered the first group of jars with fine cloth. He left the second group of jars
uncovered. Redi observed the jars for several days. He saw flies on the cloth of the
covered jars, and he saw flies laying eggs on the meat in the uncovered jars. Maggots
appeared only on the meat in the group of jars left uncovered.
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1. Scientists use a series of organized steps called scientific method to solve problems.
List the steps that are often used.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
2. What was the problem in Redi’s experiment? ______________________________
__________________________________________________________________
3. What do you think his hypothesis was? __________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
4. How did he test his hypothesis? _______________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
5. What was the variable in his experiment? ________________________________
6. What do you think Redi’s conclusion was? _________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Performing an Experiment
Read the following statements and then answer the questions.
1. A scientist wants to find out why sea water freezes at a lower temperature than
fresh water.
2. The scientist goes to the library and reads a number of articles about the physical
properties of solutions.
3. The scientist also reads about the composition of sea water.
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4. The scientist travels to a nearby beach, and observes the conditions there. The
scientist notes the taste of the sea water and other factors such as waves, wind, airpressure, temperature, and humidity.
5. After considering all this information, the scientist sits at a desk and writes, “My
guess is that sea water freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water because sea
water has salt in it.”
6. The scientist goes back to the laboratory and does the following:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Fills each of two beakers with I liter of fresh water.
Dissolves 35 grams of table salt in one of the beakers.
Places both beakers in a refrigerator whose temperature is - 1degree C.
Leaves the beakers in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
7. After 24 hours, the scientist examines both beakers and finds the fresh water to be
frozen. The salt water is still liquid.
8. The scientist writes in a notebook, “It appears as if salt water freezes at a lower
temperature than fresh water does.”
9. The scientist continues, “Therefore, I suggest that the reason sea water freezes at a
lower temperature is that sea water contains dissolved salts while fresh water does
not.”
Questions
A. Which statements contain conclusions? __________________________________
B. Which statements refer to research? ___________________________________
C. Which statement contains a hypothesis? _________________________________
D. Which statements contain observations? _________________________________
E. Which statements describe an experiment? _______________________________
F. Which statement supports the hypothesis? _______________________________
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G. In which statement is the problem defined? ______________________________
H. Which statement contains data? __________________________________
I. Which is the variable in the experiment? ____________________________
Dinosaur Scene
A time machine has been invented that travels into the past and takes pictures, sending
them to the present. You are asked to look at one of the pictures and interpret what
you see. Put an “O” before the statements that are observations and an “I” before the
statements that are inferences.
____ 1. The volcano is erupting.
____ 2. The camptosaurus is going to eat the stegosaurus.
____ 3. The stegosaurus will run into the water to escape.
____ 4. The camptosaurus is leaving tracks in the ground.
____ 5. The ground where the camptosaurus is walking is wet.
____ 6. There are plants growing in the water.
____ 7. The camptosaurus is going into the water to eat the plants.
____ 8. There is a tree growing next to the river.
____ 9. The tree looks like a palm tree.
____ 10. The climate is warm.
____ 11. The stegosaurus is eating the plant.
____ 12. The stegosaurus is an herbivore.
____ 13. There are bones from a dead animal by the shore.
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____ 14. The camptosaurus killed the animal.
____ 15. Some more bones are in the water.
____ 16. The camptosaurus can’t swim and will drown.
____ 17. Lava is corning down the sides of the volcano.
____ 18. The camptosaurus has sharp teeth for eating meat.
Suppose you are a paleontologist and you have just discovered a layer of rock with many
fossils in it, both petrified bones and tracks. Decide whether the following statements
are observations or inferences.
______ There are tracks from three different animals in the rock.
______ One animal was chasing another animal.
______ Two different animals died in this spot.
______ When the animals walked here the ground was wet.
______ One of the animals that died here had bony plates.
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______ One of the animals that died here had sharp teeth
Inferences and Observations
An observation is anything that can be taken in through the senses. This would be things
that you see, hear, taste, smell, touch, or taste. An inference is a statement that
explains the observations.
Suppose your friends went to the beach at noon on a warm day. They saw some black and
white birds. Which of the following statements are observations and which are
inferences? Indicate your answer with either the letter “O” for an observation, or the
letter “I” for an inference.
1. ________ It is summertime.
2. ________ It is day time.
3. ________ They saw birds.
4. ________ They saw seagulls.
5. ________ They went swimming.
6. ________ One friend’s name was Bob.
7. ________ It was a warm day.
8. ________ The birds were black and white.
9. ________ They ate lunch and drank Coke.
10. _______ The people are friends.
Qualitative vs. Quantitative
All of the observations in this worksheet were qualitative; that is, you observed a
quality about an object (it smelled good, it was green, etc.). Another type of observation
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is quantitative, meaning that it can be described or measured in concrete numerical
terms.
The following observations are quantitative:



There are 30 students in my class.
I weigh 98 pounds.
1 ate a pound of potatoes.
Determine which of the following statements are quantitative and which are qualitative.
1. _____________ The cup had a mass of 454 grams.
2. _____________ The temperature outside is 250 C.
3. _____________ It is warm outside.
4. _____________ The tree is 30 feet tall.
5. _____________ The building has 25 stories.
6. _____________ The building is taller than the tree.
7. _____________ The sidewalk is long.
8. _____________ The sidewalk is 100 meters long.
9. _____________ The race was over quickly.
10. _____________ The race was over in 10 minutes.
Constructing Inferences from Observations
Suppose your friends went to the beach at noon on a warm day. They saw some black and
white birds. Which of the following statements are observations and which are
inferences? Indicate your answer with either the letter “O” for an observation, or the
letter “I” for an inference.
1. _____________ It is summertime.
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2. _____________ It is daytime.
3. _____________ They saw birds.
4. _____________ They saw seagulls.
5. _____________ They went swimming.
6. _____________ One friend’s name was Bob.
7. _____________ It was a warm day.
8. _____________ The birds were black and white.
9. _____________ They ate lunch and drank Coca-Cola.
10. _____________ The people are friends.
Match the word with the definition.
_____ 1. Looking through books, web sites, or newspapers for
information on a topic.
_____ 2. The experiment.
_____ 3. A list of things needed for the experiment.
_____ 4. Always asked as a question.
_____ 5. Observations recorded and put into charts or graphs.
_____ 6. An educated guess as the answer to the problem.
A. Problem
B. Research
C. Materials
D. Data
E. Procedure
F. Variable
G. Hypothesis
_____ 7. Factor that is changed during an experiment to see
what will happen.
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8. In the following experiment, which variable is being manipulated (changed)?

Brands A, B, and C of hamburger meat are tested for the amount of fat in each.
Each brand will be cooked for exactly 7 minutes. The same pan will be used for
each test. The brands will each be drained for exactly 2 minutes by using a
strainer and a measuring cup to determine the amount of fat that is drained.
❑
❑
❑
❑
The
The
The
The
cooking time
pan
brands being tested
straining of the meat after cooking
Chocolate Chip Cookie Lab
I. Problem
1. Which brand of cookie is the least expensive?
2. Which brand of cookie is the best tasting?
3. Which brand of cookie has the best appearance?
II. Forming Hypothesis
Form a hypothesis about each of the problems given in Step I.
1. ________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________
Materials
 3 different types of store-bought chocolate chip cookies, enough for each
student
 Sheets of paper with A, B, and C written at the top.
 Scales for weighing cookies
 Ruler for measuring
 Calculators for math problems
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Procedures
1. Place the three cookies of each brand on a labeled sheet of paper so you will not mix
them up. The members of your group should take turns weighing each cookie and
recording its mass on the table labeled Table A: Quantitative Data.
2. Take one cookie of each brand and as a group record the qualitative data for the
three brands of cookies. Rate the cookies on a scale from 1 to 3, 1 being the worst and 3
being the most desirable for each quality. Record your data in Table B.
Table A – Quantitative Data
Mass of Cookies
Brand
Mass
Average Mass
Mass of Bag
A
A
A
B
B
B
C
C
C
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Table B – Qualitative Data
Brand Texture
# of Crispiness Color
Chips
Mass
Size
Taste
Total
(7)
Analyzing Data and Coming to a Conclusion
1. Now that you know the mass and cost of each bag of cookies, determine which brand
was the least expensive.
A
B
C
2. Look back to your original hypotheses.
a. Which hypotheses are supported by your data? _______________________
b. Which hypotheses are refuted by your data? _________________________
3. Which brand of cookie is the best tasting? _______________________________
4. Which brand of cookie has the best appearance? ___________________________
5. Compare your results with other groups. Are the results alike? Explain your answer.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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6. Which data, qualitative or quantitative, is most consistent with the rest of the class?
Explain.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
7. Which type of data would you expect to be most accurate? Why?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Let’s Get Fired Up!
Materials




Piece of paper
Tongs
Candle
Ruler
Safety Concerns: Fire. All students
will wear goggles while doing this
experiment. Students with long hair
will make sure they tie it back.
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Procedure
1. Look at the object in the bag (you may take the paper out of the bag and carefully!
examine it). Describe how it:
a. looks - ______________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
b. Sounds - ____________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
c. Feels - ______________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
d. Smells ______________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
e. Tastes: (DO NOT taste this object. If you do, you will get an all-expenses
paid trip to the Vice Principal’s office!)
2. Measure the object:
Length: ____________ cm
Width: ____________ cm
3. Initial inference (coming to conclusions based on your prior knowledge and
experience with similar objects or conditions) (based on your observations):
a. What do you think the object is? __________________________________
b. What is the evidence from your observation to support this inference?
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
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4. Prediction: Based on your inferences, what do you think will happen when the paper
contacts the flame from the candle? Why do you expect this?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
5. Record your observation of what happened when the paper contacted the flame.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
6. Based on your observations, do you believe your initial inference was correct?
Explain.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
7. Based on this experiment, what is the difference between an observation and an
inference?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Simple Rocket Science
(an activity from 3-2-1 Liftoff, a NASA publication)
Materials







Straw
Ten long party balloons
Cellophane tape
6 – 8 meters of nylon monofilament fishing line
Scissors
Spring clothespin
Straw rocket drawing
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 Two classroom chairs
 Paper
 Measuring tape
Safety Concerns: Scissors, latex
allergy. If you have a latex allergy,
DO NOT touch the balloons. Discuss
safe and proper use of scissors.
Procedure
1. Thread the fishing line through the straw. Attach each end of the line with the straw
on it to the back of a classroom chair. Stretch the line tightly.
2. Blow up a balloon and keep it tightly closed with fingers or with a clothespin. Count
the number of breaths used to fill the balloon. Record this data on the table on your
worksheet.
3. Tape one part of the rocket pattern to the balloon. Tape the balloon carefully to the
straw while keeping it tightly closed. See diagram on the next page.
4. Position of the balloon on the fishing line. Place the balloon near one end of the
fishing line with the open end closest to the chair.
5. Prepare to launch, or release, the air from the balloon. Just like a rocket launch,
practice a countdown, 10,9,8,7,6,5..., before the air is released.
6. Carefully remove fingers or the clothespin from the balloon and release the air.
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7-. Measure how far the balloon travelled.
8. Repeat steps 2-7. Each time, use a different number of breaths.

1. Record your hypothesis below.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
2. What variable are you testing?
__________________________________________________________________
3. How many times should you repeat the experiment for each time you test your
variable? Explain.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Data Table
Trial 1
Number of Breaths
Distance Travelled
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Trial 2
Number of Breaths
Distance Travelled
Trial 3
Number of Breaths
Distance Travelled
Trial 4
Number of Breaths
Distance Travelled
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Trial 5
Number of Breaths
Distance Travelled
Analysis
4. Review your table(s). What does your data tell you?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
5. Is your hypothesis correct or incorrect? Explain.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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General Scientific Method Quiz
1. The recorded measurements taken during an experiment are…
a. conclusions.
b. data.
c. variables.
d. controls.
2. A statement that explains an observations is called the…
a. experiment.
b. observation.
c. variable.
d. conclusions.
3. Testing the hypothesis is called…
a. a conclusion.
b. an experiment.
c. a theory.
d. a law.
4. At the end of an experiment, a scientist forms a(n)…
a. problem.
b. hypothesis.
c. observation.
d. conclusion.
Each sentence below describes a step of the scientific method. Match each sentence
with a step of the scientific method listed below.
A. Recognize a problem
B. Form a hypothesis
C. Test the hypothesis with an experiment
D. Draw conclusions
____ 5. Grant wondered if dyes could be taken out of leaves, flowers, and stems of
plants.
____ 6. Tiffney soaked six different kinds of seeds in water for 24 hours. Then she
planted the seeds in soil at a depth of 1 cm. She used the same amount of water, light,
and heat for each kind of seed.
____ 7. Ty read about growing plants in water. He wanted to know how plants could
grow without soil.
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____ 8. Angela said,” If I grow five seedlings in red light, I think the plants will grow
faster than the five plants grown in white light.”
____ 9. Doug fed different diets to three groups of guinea pigs. His experiment showed
that guinea pigs need vitamin C and protein in their diets.
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