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the investigation and exploration of natural events and of the new information that results from those investigations


simplified representation of a system

field study

a scientific study of free-living plants and animals in which the subjects are observed in their natural habitat without changing, harming, or altering the setting or subjects

systematic observation

the skill of recognizing and noting some fact or event in the the natural world

controlled experiment

a lab investigation in which the values of all variables are kept the same except for one that is changed from experiment to experiment


the imitation of some real thing, situation, or process


the results of using one or more of your senses to gather information and taking note of what occurs




any factor that can have more than one value

independent variable

the factor that you want to test that is changed by the investigator to observe how it affects a dependent variable

dependent variable

the factor you observe or measure during an experiment

experimental group

used to study how a change in the independent variable changes the dependent variable

control group

contains the same factors as the experimental group, but the independent variable is not changed

why we hypothesize

-know what you're going to prove
-know what you're going to learn
-have an idea of what is to be tested
-research (background)

control group the independent variable isn't changed

How is the control group different from an experimental group?

repeat several times to confirm hypothesis

what do you do if your hypothesis is supported?

modify and revise hypothesis then test it again

what do you do if your hypothesis is not supported?

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