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Introduction to Life Science
PA State Standards
What is Life Science?
Life Science is the study of living organisms and their
environment.
Breakdown the word Biology into a prefix
and suffix
BIO –
OLOGY –
LIFE
STUDY OF
Therefore: Biology is the study of life
How many other ‘ologies can you come up with?
Here are a few examples:
Astrology – Study of…
The Stars
Ecology – Study of …
Living things and how they interact with their environment
ZOOLOGY – Study of …
Animals
Entomology – Study of …
INSECTS
What are the scientists called that work in the some of these fields?
Botanist – Studies plants
Microbiologist – studies microscopic organisms
Biochemist – Studies chemicals in life
You are a Scientist!
When you come in to this room, you must think like a scientist!
A scientist always needs to:
Question – Always question the world around you.
What? Why? Where? When? How?
A scientist always needs to:
Observe: You observe the world by using your five senses.
Sight
Taste
Hearing
Smell
Touch
There are TWO types of OBSERVATIONS:
QUALITATIVE
QUANTITATIVE
QUALITATIVESight
Taste
Hearing
Smell
Touch
This is what an object looks like, feels like, smells like, etc.
**For Example: How do you find the light switch in your room when it is dark?
QUANTITATIVE
The actual measurement of an object – How long is it? How much does it weigh?
What if you are not 100% sure about an
observation but need to answer a question?
For example: What might be wrong with the lake? OR What can you INFER about the lake?
NO
FISHING OR SWIMMING
NO
FISHING OR SWIMMING
What did you infer about the lake?
•Pollution
•Possible current
•Parasites
Infer –
Forming a conclusion based upon what you think explains an observation.
Example 2: I walked into my house and it smelled good.
You could infer:
•Cooking/baking
•Cleaning
•Candles burning
The Scientific Method Steps followed to
solve a problem.
1. State the problem
2. Gather information
3. Form Hypothesis
4. Experiment
5. Data
6. Conclusion
Scientific Method1. State the Problem
What might be his problem?
Scientific Method2. Gather Information
Use books, internet, magazines, talk to people, etc.
Scientific Method3. Form a Hypothesis
An educated prediction or explanation on how to solve your problem
Scientific Method4. Experiment
Test your hypothesis to solve your problem
Scientific Method5. Conclusion
An answer that explains the problem.
Experiments To solve a problem
or question, one must conduct an experiment.
There are two groups needed in an experiment.
The two groups needed are:
The Experimental Group
This is the group that is being experimented on.
It is the group that contains the variables (or the factor being tested)
The Control Group
This is the group that remains the same, and is not being experimented on.
What is a variable? It is the factor being tested: There are
two types
Independent variable
You can change or control this factor
Dependent variable This is the factor
being measured.
Let’s try an experiment and see if we can find the
two groups:
The County fair is coming up and you want to enter the plant contest; however, your plants at home are in sad shape. You decide to go to the Home Depot to buy the latest plant growth products, and try an experiment to see if they really work better than regular water and sunlight.
The County Fair Experiment
Plant A Plant B
We will take two plants that are alike. Plant A will get only sunlight and water. Plant B will get the same as plant A plus grow fast fertilizer.
Both plant A and plant B get equal amounts of sunlight and water.
ONLY Plant B receives the Fast Growth Fertilizer.
Plant A Plant B
Hypothesis: I believe plant B will grow at a faster rate than plant A.
The Data This is a graph
showing the growth of both plants over 4 weeks.
Which plant grew more?
Plant B grew at a faster rate than plant A.
05
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
WEEK
1
WEEK
4
plantA
plantB
Conclusions Our data agrees
with our hypothesis. Plant B grew at a
faster rate than plant A.
Plant B
What were the two groups in the experiment?
Experimental group
Plant B
Control Group
Plant A
In a real experiment, you will have a lot of subjects in each group. In this case, we would have had about 100 plants in each group.
What are the variables?Remember the experiment – 2 of the exact same plants were given sunlight & water, and only plant B was given fertilizer. We were trying to see which one grew faster.
Dependent Variable – What is being measured?
Growth of plants
Independent Variable – What did we change in one of the plants?
The fertilizer