Review for
Science Inquiry Assessment
8 th Grade Science
Cothern
MSMS

Ways Scientists Discover New Things
• Creative and Critical Thinking
• Extensive Documentation
• Strong Powers of Observation
• Synthesis of Information & Strong
Collaboration with Others
• Taking Advantage of Serendipity
• Use of Technology and Resources

Story #1
Creative & Critical Thinking
Strong Powers of Observation
Taking Advantage of Serendipity
For years Einstein had been trying to reconcile or prove one of - two seemingly contradictory theories about space and time. While riding a street car home one day, he was struck by the sight of Bern's famous clock tower – and the theory of special relativity came to Einstein.
The answer was simple and elegant: time can beat at different rates throughout the universe, depending on how fast you moved.

Story #2
Taking Advantage of Serendipity
Creative and Critical Thinking
Extensive Documentation
Otto Loewi discovered that nerve impulses were transmitted chemically, not electronically, all thanks to a dream. The story goes that just before Easter Sunday, in 1920, Loewi dreamed of an experiment he could do that would prove once and for all how nerve impulses were transmitted. He woke up in the middle of the night, excited and happy, scribbled the experiment down and went back to sleep. When he woke up, he couldn't read his notes. Luckily, he had the same dream the next night. The experiment and his later work earned him the title, the "Father of Neuroscience.”

Story #3
Creative & Critical Thinking
Use of Technology & Resources
Strong Powers of Observation
The 14-year-old Philo Farnsworth was plowing a potato field one day when it suddenly just came to him how electrical television could work.
According to legend, the back-and-forth motion of the till inspired him. Farnsworth realized that an electron beam could scan images line by line simply put, that was the basis for almost all TVs until LCD and plasma screens came along. He went on to demonstrate the first operational, allelectronic television system in 1927.

Story #4
Creative & Critical Thinking
One Friday night in the 1980s Kary Mullis was driving from Berkeley, where he worked, to
Mendocino, Calif., where he had a cabin. The drive is about three hours long, but the brainstorm Mullis had behind the wheel will most likely last forever. Mullis wasn't trying to solve a particular problem during that drive, just thinking out loud when, according to him, he came up with PCR, a process by which a teeny-tiny bit of
DNA can be exponentially amplified.

Story #5
Creative & Critical Thinking
Synthesis of Info. & Collaboration with Others
Use of Technology & Resources
Strong Powers of Observation
Spencer Silver spent years trying to get his colleagues at 3M excited about his low-tack, pressure-sensitive adhesive. But one day another
3M scientist was in church and came up with a use for Dr. Silver's glue. Arthur Fry was annoyed that the bookmarks in his hymnal wouldn't stay put. He thought adding Dr. Silver's adhesive to some paper might do the trick. Not only was he right, but people have been coming up with uses for the Post-Its ever since.

Make an observation, inference, prediction for the following picture.

• Observation: A man is underwater with a light.
• Inference: He is exploring.
• Prediction: He will get out of the water eventually.

Make an observation, inference, prediction for the following picture.

• Observation: A person is going over a waterfall in a kayak.
• Inference: He is an adventurer.
• Prediction: He will continue kayaking after he plunges into the water.

Make an observation, inference, prediction for the following picture.

• Observation: The guy is jumping off of a wall.
• Inference: He enjoys parkour.
• Prediction: He will break a bone jumping off of walls.

Group A receives a placebo while Group B receives a medicine for treating migraine headaches. Which is the experimental group?
Group A Group B

Group B is the experimental group.

Which statement is a theory and why?
B is a theory because it describes a hypothesis/prediction.
Since we can’t see electrons, this is a prediction. It could be disproven.
A is a law because is explains/describes something that has been observed.

Make a quantitative and qualitative measurement about the following picture.

Qualitative: blue water
Quantitative: 17 kayaks

What is the independent variable?
Spock loves bubble gum. He wants to be able to blow the biggest bubble possible with one piece of gum. He buys 3 brands of gum –
Hubba Bubba, Bubble Yum, and Dubble
Bubble – and cuts them down to where they all have the same mass. He will blow 10 bubbles with each type of gum and measure the diameter of the bubble.
The brands of gum

What is the dependent variable?
Spock loves bubble gum. He wants to be able to blow the biggest bubble possible with one piece of gum. He buys 3 brands of gum –
Hubba Bubba, Bubble Yum, and Dubble
Bubble – and cuts them down to where they all have the same mass. He will blow 10 bubbles with each type of gum and measure the diameter of the bubble.
Diameter of the bubbles

What are the constants?
Spock loves bubble gum. He wants to be able to blow the biggest bubble possible with one piece of gum. He buys 3 brands of gum –
Hubba Bubba, Bubble Yum, and Dubble
Bubble – and cuts them down to where they all have the same mass. He will blow 10 bubbles with each type of gum and measure the diameter of the bubble.
The number of bubbles, mass of pieces of gum

Give a possible hypothesis.
Spock loves bubble gum. He wants to be able to blow the biggest bubble possible with one piece of gum. He buys 3 brands of gum –
Hubba Bubba, Bubble Yum, and Dubble
Bubble – and cuts them down to where they all have the same mass. He will blow 10 bubbles with each type of gum and measure the diameter of the bubble.
If a bubble is blown using Hubba Bubba gum, then it will have the largest diameter of bubble when compared to
Bubble Yum and Dubble Bubble.

How could you improve or change this experiment?
Spock loves bubble gum. He wants to be able to blow the biggest bubble possible with one piece of gum. He buys 3 brands of gum –
Hubba Bubba, Bubble Yum, and Dubble
Bubble – and cuts them down to where they all have the same mass. He will blow 10 bubbles with each type of gum and measure the diameter of the bubble.
Use additional types of gum, try using multiple pieces of gum, keep all the flavors of gum the same, chew on the gum for the same amount of time

What are the constants in this experiment?
Jim want to make Star Fleet a nicer place to live. He has created a new sauce that he thinks will reduce the production of bodily gas associated with eating soy burgers. He recruits 100 customers with a history of gas problems. Group
A received the gas-reducing sauce. He has 50 of them (Group B) eat the soy burgers with sauce that looks like the new sauce but is really just a mixture of mayo and food coloring. Both groups were told that they were getting the sauce that would reduce gas production. Six hours after eating, 8 members of group B and 30 members of group A reported having fewer gas problems.

# of members in each group soy burgers time after eating

Give a possible hypothesis.
Jim want to make Star Fleet a nicer place to live. He has created a new sauce that he thinks will reduce the production of bodily gas associated with eating soy burgers. He recruits 100 customers with a history of gas problems. Group
A received the gas-reducing sauce. He has 50 of them (Group B) eat the soy burgers with sauce that looks like the new sauce but is really just a mixture of mayo and food coloring. Both groups were told that they were getting the sauce that would reduce gas production. Six hours after eating, 8 members of group B and 30 members of group A reported having fewer gas problems.

If the subjects eat the burgers with the gas-preventing sauce, then they will experience/produce less gas.

What is the independent variable?
Jim want to make Star Fleet a nicer place to live. He has created a new sauce that he thinks will reduce the production of bodily gas associated with eating soy burgers. He recruits 100 customers with a history of gas problems. Group
A received the gas-reducing sauce. He has 50 of them (Group B) eat the soy burgers with sauce that looks like the new sauce but is really just a mixture of mayo and food coloring. Both groups were told that they were getting the sauce that would reduce gas production. Six hours after eating, 8 members of group B and 30 members of group A reported having fewer gas problems.

The sauce

What is the dependent variable?
Jim want to make Star Fleet a nicer place to live. He has created a new sauce that he thinks will reduce the production of bodily gas associated with eating soy burgers. He recruits 100 customers with a history of gas problems. Group
A received the gas-reducing sauce. He has 50 of them (Group B) eat the soy burgers with sauce that looks like the new sauce but is really just a mixture of mayo and food coloring. Both groups were told that they were getting the sauce that would reduce gas production. Six hours after eating, 8 members of group B and 30 members of group A reported having fewer gas problems.

Gas production

Which group is the control group?
Jim want to make Star Fleet a nicer place to live. He has created a new sauce that he thinks will reduce the production of bodily gas associated with eating soy burgers. He recruits 100 customers with a history of gas problems. Group
A received the gas-reducing sauce. He has 50 of them (Group B) eat the soy burgers with sauce that looks like the new sauce but is really just a mixture of mayo and food coloring. Both groups were told that they were getting the sauce that would reduce gas production. Six hours after eating, 8 members of group B and 30 members of group A reported having fewer gas problems.

Those who do not receive the gasreducing sauce.

What can you infer based on the results?
Jim want to make Star Fleet a nicer place to live. He has created a new sauce that he thinks will reduce the production of bodily gas associated with eating soy burgers. He recruits 100 customers with a history of gas problems. Group
A received the gas-reducing sauce. He has 50 of them (Group B) eat the soy burgers with sauce that looks like the new sauce but is really just a mixture of mayo and food coloring. Both groups were told that they were getting the sauce that would reduce gas production. Six hours after eating, 8 members of group B and 30 members of group A reported having fewer gas problems.

The gas-reducing sauce works on
60% of the subjects. It will not work for everyone.