1. 1-1 Assessment Essential Question: What is science and why is it important to learn about?

2. 1. What does science study? The natural world. The purpose of science is to find out and explain how the natural world works.

3. 2. What does it mean to describe a scientist as skeptical? Why is skepticism considered a valuable quality in a scientist? It means scientists always question existing ideas and new hypotheses. Skepticism is valuable because scientific understanding is always changing.

4. 3. What is the main difference between qualitative and quantitative observations? Quantitative = can be counted or expressed as a number. Qualitative = characteristics that can’t be counted or expressed as a number. Example: color, texture Example: temperature, weight, # of individuals

5. 4. What is a scientific hypothesis? In what two ways can a hypothesis be tested? Educated guess, suggested explanation for a set of observations. By performing controlled experiments By gathering more data, observations.

6. 5. Is a scientific hypothesis accepted if there is no way to demonstrate that the hypothesis is wrong? Explain your answer. No. Scientific hypotheses have to be proposed in a way that makes them testable.

7. 6. Suppose a community proposes a law to require the wearing of seatbelts in all moving vehicles. How could scientific research have an impact on the decision? Do experiments to see if wearing seatbelts reduces injuries or deaths. Count how many people were hurt or killed in car accidents. Find out how many were wearing seatbelts.

8. Alt. Assessment. List the 5 main senses and give an example of an observation you have made using each sense. Add at least one inference you could make based on each observation. Observationinference Vision Hearing Smell Taste touch light on window Sun is out Table feels hard Soda tastes sweet Smell smoke Blowing sound Made of wood Has sugar in it Something is burning Fan is on

9. Let’s take a closer look at how science works and why it’s important to learn about….

10. How does lawn fertilizer affect animal life?

11. How do earthworms respond to lawn fertilizer?

12. Question: How do earthworms respond to lawn fertilizer? Hypothesis: If given a choice, earthworms will be attracted to/repelled by/unaffected by fertilizer because ________________ How could we design an experiment to test our hypothesis? Combination of words and pictures to show how you would do an experiment to test your hypothesis

13. How do isopods respond to lawn fertilizer?

14. Question: How do isopods respond to lawn fertilizer? Hypothesis: If given a choice, isopods will be attracted to/repelled by/unaffected by fertilizer because __________________ Procedures: How could we design an experiment to test our hypothesis? Combination of words and pictures to show how you would do an experiment to test your hypothesis