Unit 1 Overview – Intro, Safety, Inquiry
Unit 1 involves planning and implementing field and laboratory investigations using scientific method, analyzing information, making informed decisions, and using to tools to collect and record information. Students also will research contributions made by scientists and inventors and their impact on society.
Topics:
- Lab safety, lab equipment, scientific method, process of inquiry, inventors, inventions
Concepts:
- Discovery, exploration, cooperation, investigation, procedure, methods, research
Guiding Questions:
- How does using the scientific method enable students to discover and explore, by working in cooperative groups, the correct procedures for investigations?
- How have the investigations of other impacted or contributed to our world today?
Essential Facts:
- Repeated investigations produce more reliable results.
- Cooperative groups involve sharing responsibilities I lab investigations.
- There are safe and proper ways to use laboratory equipment.
- The process of inquiry involves observing, measuring, inferring, predicting, making models, communicating, classifying, defining operationally, and investigating.
- Inventions have improved our society.
Nature of Science
Number one safety rule – Tell the Teacher!
Hazard – danger
Precaution – something done to prevent an accident
Always use goggles when working with – liquids
Experiments can only have ONEvariable (thing that is changing) because it is what you are testing. For example, if you want to know which brand of bubble gum makes the biggest bubbles, the only thing different (the variable) would be the rand of the bubble gum. EVERYTHING else has to be the same: same person chewing the same number of times with all the brands and blowing the bubble with the same force each time in the same environment.
Balance – a dual-pan or triple-beam balance used to measure mass
Beaker – glass container that holds liquids while they are being stirred or hearted
Collecting net – a new used to collect samples in field investigations
Compass – a device used to show which direction is north
Filter – a device used to separate the parts of a mixture by passing the mixture through it (coffee filter, screen)
Funnel – a cone-shaped tool used to assist in transferring liquids to container with small openings
Graduated cylinder – a cylinder used to accurately measure the volume of liquids
Hand lens – a lens that magnifies objects, but is not as powerful as a microscope
Microscope – a laboratory instrument used to magnify extremely small objects so we can see them
Model – something that is made to represent something else; making the size of the objects and the distances accurate will improve the model
Petri dish – a round, flat dish with lid used to hold small specimens that are to be observed and collected
Rain gauge – a weather instrument that measures rainfall
Safety goggles – special plastic glasses that cover the eyes to protect the during experiments that involve liquids
Telescope – a tool for observing distant objects
Temperature – a measure of how hot or cold something is
Testable question – a question that can be answered with a scientific experiment
Test Tube – glass cylinder used to heat chemicals or objects
Texture – how rough or smooth an object is
Thermometer – an instrument used to measure temperature in degrees
Volume – the amount of space an object takes up
Weight – the measure of pull of gravity on an object
Data – information gathered during an experiment
Scientific Process:
- Ask a question that can be answered with an experiment
- Hypothesis – an educated guess about what will happen
- Materials – a complete list of all items needed and amounts needed for an experiment
- Procedure – a simple and clear step by step list of instructions to follow to complete an experiment
- Results – the data collected during an experiment usually displayed in a graph or chart
- Conclusion – a short paragraph stating whether the hypothesis was correct, why or why not, and what you could do next if you wanted to experiment further