Vocabulary Part 1

Science A way of learning about the natural world.

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

Inferring When you explain or interpret the things you observe.

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

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

Evaluating Comparing observations and data to reach a conclusion.

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

Variable Factors that can change in an experiment.

Independent Variable Factor that is changed to test a hypothesis.

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

Controls Parts of an experiment that never change.

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

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

Quantitative Observations that deal with numbers (quantity).

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

Metric System Measurement system based on the number 10.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Graph A picture of your data.

Linear Graph Data points follow a straight line.

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