1. All Super Scientists Know That… A variable is: something that is different in an experiment. You want only one variable in an experiment.

2. All Super Scientists Know That… Matter is: anything that has mass and takes up space.

3. All Super Scientists Know That… Mass can be measured using a balance scale. Mass is different from weight because mass is not affected by gravity. (Ex: A rock on the Moon will have the same mass on Earth, but the weight on the Earth will be greater due to gravity.)

4. All Super Scientists Know That… The amount of space that an object takes up is its volume. Volume is length x width x height.

5. All Super Scientists Know That… A hypothesis is an educated guess.

6. All Super Scientists Know That… A bucket of water would be used to measure density. Density tells you how tightly packed the particles are in an object.

7. All Super Scientists Know That… In order for a scientific explanation to be credible, it must be repeated over and over.

8. All Super Scientists Know That… The purpose of using a model is to show something that is either too big or too small to actually be seen. All models have good things and bad things about them.

9. All Super Scientists Know That… Traits that you get from your parents are called inherited traits. Both animals and plants inherit traits.

10. All Super Scientists Know That… Learned characteristics are features that result from the influence of the environment. Example: Raccoons who live in cities have learned to open garbage cans to get food.

11. All Super Scientists Know That… Adaptive characteristics are things that help an organism survive. Examples: Jackrabbits have long legs for escaping predators. A cactus can hold a great deal of water, since it rains very little where they grow. Roses have thorns to keep things from eating it.

12. All Super Scientists Know That… A niche describes the job or role of a particular organism in a habitat. Examples: A lizard has a sticky tongue for catching bugs. An owl hunts for mice at night.

13. All Super Scientists Know That… Plants and animals both have life cycles. These life cycles have similarities and differences, but all life cycles always begin with an egg or seed and end in death.

14. All Super Scientists Know That… Metamorphosis is either complete or incomplete. Complete has egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Incomplete has egg, nymph and adult.

15. All Super Scientists Know That… Animals adapt in order to survive in an ecosystem.

16. All Super Scientists Know That… Adaptive characteristics such as long hair for warmth, a smooth body for swimming, or a good sense of smell for hunting help animals to survive.

17. All Super Scientists Know That… Environmental changes such as a lack of oxygen, water, or food supplies can cause living things to become ill or die. When food, water, or oxygen is plentiful, it can cause living things to thrive.

18. All Super Scientists Know That… Often, living organisms modify, or change, their physical environment to meet their needs. Examples include beavers building a dam or a human building a home.

19. All Super Scientists Know That… A food web lets you know "what is eating what" in a habitat. The plants are the producers, the animals that eat the plants are the consumers, the animals that eat consumers are predators and the things that eat dead or decaying objects are decomposers.

20. All Super Scientists Know That… The source of all life on Earth is the Sun.

21. All Super Scientists Know That… An example of light energy is the lights in your house or the light that your television puts out.

22. All Super Scientists Know That… An example of electrical energy is plugging something into a socket. You must have a complete circuit in order for it to work.

23. All Super Scientists Know That… Reflection is when light rays bounce back at you. Examples include mirrors and tinted windows.

24. All Super Scientists Know That… Refraction is the bending of light. Examples include cameras, telescopes, and eyeglasses.

25. All Super Scientists Know That… Electricity flowing in a circuit can produce heat, light, sound and magnetic effects. When you plug in your television, you get light, heat and sound energy. An electromagnet, when hooked up to an electric circuit produces magnetic effects.

26. All Super Scientists Know That… Vibration causes sound to occur. Examples include your vocal cords, a drum, or a bell.

27. All Super Scientists Know That… Physical properties tell you all about an object. It lets you know if an object is magnetic, a solid, a liquid or a gas, and whether or not it is a conductor of electricity, heat and sound.

28. All Super Scientists Know That… An object that is a conductor allows things, like heat, sound, or electric current, to flow through it.

29. All Super Scientists Know That… An insulator does not allow heat, sound or electricity to flow through it. It holds them in.

30. All Super Scientists Know That… A mixture occurs when two or more substances are mixed together. To separate a mixture you must look at the substances' physical properties in order to decide how to separate it. If one of the substances is magnetic, you can separate it with a magnet. If one of the substances is dissolved in a liquid, you can use evaporation to separate it.

31. All Super Scientists Know That… When you dissolve something in water, like sugar, the sugar breaks down into very tiny pieces. While it is dissolved, it no longer behaves like a solid, but behaves instead like a liquid. When you separate the mixture through evaporation, the sugar is once again a solid.

32. All Super Scientists Know That… The freezing and melting point of water is 0 degrees Celsius. This is different than the freezing and melting point of another substance like gold.

33. All Super Scientists Know That… The boiling point of water is 100 degrees Celsius. This is different than the boiling point of gold.

34. All Super Scientists Know That… Friction occurs when objects rub against each other. An example would be a car tire skidding on a road. Low friction is when things slide easily, like a water slide. High friction occurs when things don’t slide easily, like sandpaper.

35. All Super Scientists Know That… Gravity is the force that pulls all objects down. An example would be your force throwing a ball up, and the force of gravity pulling it down.

36. All Super Scientists Know That… Deposition is the deposit of sediment over a period of time. Deltas are formed because of deposition. Also, sedimentary rock layers, like those seen in the Grand Canyon are the result of deposition.

37. All Super Scientists Know That… Weathering is the breaking up of large rocks into smaller rocks. When these small rocks move from one place to another by wind or water, erosion occurs. Weathering and erosion of rocks takes millions of years.

38. All Super Scientists Know That… Deposition is a constructive force because you construct or make something because of it. Weathering is a destructive force because you destroy or break something down because of it.

39. All Super Scientists Know That… The Earth is different from the moon because the Earth has: an atmosphere liquid water much more gravity than the moon.

40. All Super Scientists Know That… When looking at tree-growth rings, you can tell a lot about a tree’s life. Rings that are light and far apart tell you that that was a good year for the tree with lots of water and nutrients. Rings that are close together and dark tell you that the tree was missing either water, nutrients in the soil or sunlight.

41. All Super Scientists Know That… Renewable resources can be replaced. An example is planting a tree.

42. All Super Scientists Know That… Nonrenewable resources can NOT be replaced. Once they are gone, they are gone forever. Examples are coal, oil, minerals and natural gas. We need to work to replace some of the nonrenewable resources we use with renewable resources.

43. All Super Scientists Know That… Inexhaustible resources get used over and over. An example is the wind or ocean waves.

44. All Super Scientists Know That… When the Earth spins around once on its axis, a day occurs. This is called rotation. (rotation…roDAYtion)

45. All Super Scientists Know That… When the moon makes one complete orbit around the Earth, a month occurs.

46. All Super Scientists Know That… When the Earth completes one turn around the Sun, a year occurs. This is called a revolution. (revolution…4 syllables…4 seasons)

47. All Super Scientists Know That… The water cycle includes evaporation (liquid to gas), condensation (gas to liquid), and precipitation. If one step is removed, it will not work.

48. All Super Scientists Know That… The nitrogen cycle puts nitrates into the soil for plants (producers) to use.

49. All Super Scientists Know That… The carbon-dioxide/oxygen cycle produces oxygen for us to breathe. We take in oxygen and give out carbon dioxide. Plants take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen.

50. All Super Scientists Know That… When growing things in soil: clay soil (small particles) does not allow water to absorb quickly at all, sandy soil (big particles) allows the water to travel straight through it very quickly and loam (medium- sized particles) is just right.

51. All Super Scientists Know That… Our Sun supports all life on Earth. It also creates wind and aids in the evaporation process in the water cycle.

52. All Super Scientists Know That… Know the order of our planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

53. All Super Scientists Know That… Sunspots are the cool dark spots on our Sun.

54. All Super Scientists Know That… Solar flares are the extremely hot gaseous explosions that occur on the Sun’s surface.

55. All Super Scientists Know That… The outer layer of the Sun is called the corona.

56. All Super Scientists Know That… The surface of the Earth can be greatly changed by forces such as earthquakes and moving glaciers.