Introduction to Life Science

Science is a way of learning about the natural world Scientific inquiry – all the diverse ways in which scientist study the natural world Observation – using one or more of your five senses to gather and collect information Data – facts, figures and other evidence gathered through observations

Inference – an interpretation of an observation based on evidence or prior knowledge Hypothesis – a possible explanation for a set of observations Variables – factors that change in an experiment

Independent variable – what the person doing the experiment changes to test the hypothesis Dependent variable – changes because of the independent variable Controlled experiment – an experiment in which all the variables remain the same except for one Scientific theory – a well tested concept that explains a wide range of observations