BIOLOGY - Ms. West
NAME:_______________________
DATE:_______________PER:_____
CH. 1.1
What is SCIENCE?
Lecture Notes
 What the heck is “SCIENCE??!?!” [WDTM?! = What does that mean?]
 Last time I checked…most of you are HUMANS (which, in case you didn’t know, is a
type of _______________, DUH! =p)…
 …SO, as humans, especially you “teenage humans”, it is in your “Human Nature” to:
o 2) ________ ______________!... based on what you
o 1) OBSERVE, what you _________, ___________, ___________,
___________ & ____________.
 What are those lights in the sky? Why is the sky blue? Why is water blue? What is a
rainbow? What causes thunder? Why are apples sweet? How do bears hibernate?
Where do babies come from? 
 [5WH?! = _____________________________________________ ]
 WHAT is “SCIENCE”?: Science is anything that is _____________!
~ by making _________________, Asking QUESTIONS, discovering
_______________, and trying to find ______________ & _______________!
 Science is also an _______________ way of using evidence to learn about
______________, and the ____________ around us!
 Science is a way of ____________ AND __________!
 “Science” also includes, but is not limited to the body of knowledge that has
been accumulated over the years (by WHO? _________________________!)
…BUT ALSO & most IMPORTANTLY….
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 Science is a _____________, which we use almost everyday, known as...
 THE SCIENTIFIC _______________!!! [_______?!]
 “SCIENCE” is NOT: that which is NOT _______________!
o Such as _______________ or _____________ (like _____________)
 The GOAL of SCIENCE: [_______?!]
 is to investigate and understand _____________, to explain those events
observed in nature, and to use those explanations to make useful
_________________!
 Ex: _______________
 Now that you know WHAT science is & WHY we do it, let’s start to talk about the
steps taken to HOW we do it (______ ______________ ____________)… [5WH]
 OBSERVATIONS:
o ALL SCIENCE starts with making __________________!
o OBSERVATIONS are made by using 1 or more of your ____________ (i.e.
___________, ___________, ___________, ____________, ____________)
in order to gather _______________/aka __________.
 2 types of OBSERVATIONS: QUANTITATIVE vs. QUALITATIVE
 QUANTITATIVE: (“_____________”) involves __________, counting and
measurements.
-Ex:______________________________________________________
-Ex:______________________________________________________
-2-
 QUALITATIVE: (“______________”) involves characteristics (or
descriptions) that cannot be easily measured or ___________. Such as
COLOR, TEXTURE or TASTE.
-Ex:______________________________________________________
-Ex:______________________________________________________
o When you RECORD your ________________ (WHAT you ______, ________,
________, _________, _________, _____________, etc…) those observations
become what’s called ________!
 DATA: the information gathered from ________________, that can be used as
_____________!.
 INFERENCE: a logical interpretation based on prior ________________ and
experience.
~ First, you must make ________________ and collect __________.
~ Ex: If you see a big puddle of water around and under your car and your car is wet,
based on your prior knowledge and experience, you might infer that: ___________
* Circle the observation that led to this inference.
* What sense did you use? _________
~ Ex: If you smell hamburgers when you are sitting in your room doing your homework
(like a good little biology student), based on your prior knowledge and experience,
you might infer that: ______________________________________________
* Circle the observation that led to this inference.
* What sense did you use? ________
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 After you make ________________ & record info/_________, then you want to
try to ____________ why you observed what you did!...
 What is your explanation of your observations called?  ________________!
 HYPOTHESIS:
o a possible ________________ for a set of observations.
o a ________________ that explains the things that have been observed.
 Based on your ________________ (using your ____________)
 MUST be _______________!!! [If you can’t prove it right or wrong, through
____________, it isn’t a true HYPOTHESIS!]
o GOOD/BAD HYPOTHESIS?: “I hypothesize that blue is the best of all colors!”
~ Can you test it? ______! Therefore, it is _______ a hypothesis!
o GOOD/BAD HYPOTHESIS?: “I hypothesize that ________________________
_____________________________________________________________”
~ Is it testable? _______, therefore it ____ a hypothesis!
 SO, how do you know if a HYPOTHESIS is “correct” (_______________) or not?
 _________ ____/__________________!
~ How often do you think people’s hypotheses are wrong? _________________
~ What happens IF a hypothesis is wrong? Do you give up and crawl under a rock and
consider yourself a failure forever? =(
- ________! ____________________________________________________
 MANY discoveries have been discovered ______ _______________!!!
 [WHO?!] SCIENTISTS are ____________ _____________ who are just
curious, ask questions and try to find _______________ to those questions or
_______________ to problems that they observe!
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 Let’s REVIEW what we’ve learned so far…
THE SCIENTIFIC
METHOD:
 SO, the FIRST STEPS of SCIENCE begin with
(A)______________, using your ___________.
 There are ____ types of observations:
(A)
____________ & ___________.
(quantitative & qualitative)
 Then, based on those ____________, you are
going to try to explain why you observed what
you did by forming a (B)______________.
(B)
 The observations and information that you
gather to support your explanation, or
(C)
hypothesis, are called ________.
 After you form a ____________, what do you
think you would need to do next?!
(C)_________!!!
 TESTING through ________________ takes
certain steps, which we will cover next time!!...
 AWESOMENESS of SCIENCE?!?!?...
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to be continued!…
(we’re NOT done!
these are only the
first ___
steps!...there’s ___
MORE we’ll discuss
next time! )