Check Your ANSWERS

1.   E
2. C
3. A
4.  D
5. B
6. F

7. 
ANIMALS IN THE PARK
ANIMAL NUMBER of
ANIMALS

PIGEONS25
SQUIRRELS15
RABBITS5
CATS5

ANIMALS IN THE PARK

8. 25 —
NUMBER of ANIMALS

20 —
15 —
10 —
5—

PIGEONS SQUIRRELS RABBITS CATS

9. You can’t draw a line graph because there is no data to
compare the number of animals to, such as time of day.

30
 Chapter 3
LAB REPORTS
AND
EVALUATING RESULTS
It’s important to share your results with other scientists so
they can learn from your work, critique it, and build upon it.
That’s how science knowledge grows. There are many ways
to communicate your experiment and findings to others.
The most common way is to write a LAB REPORT.

WRITING a LAB REPORT

A lab report usually contains the following:

TITLE: lets the reader know what the investigation was about

PURPOSE: a brief description to answer the question,

“What was the purpose of doing this experiment?”
or “What is the question I’m trying to answer?”

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION: definitions of key words
and explanation of key concepts

HYPOTHESIS: the predictions you were testing

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT: a list of the materials

and equipment necessary to carry out the experiment.
You could even add a sketch or description of the setup.

PROCEDURE: a step-by-step Make sure to title charts,

description of how to carry out graphs, and tables and to
label all axes on any graphs.
the experiment

DATA: all the measurements and observations you made

during the experiment. Be sure to present data in an
organized way, such as in tables, graphs, or drawings.
The best measurements are ACCURATE and PRECISE.

precision
how consistent and exact accuracy
your measurements are how close to the actual
value your measurement is

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CONCLUSION: a summary of what you learned from the
experiment, whether or not your results supported your
hypothesis, any errors, and questions for more experiments

Sometimes exact measurements are not possible

or practical—like if you don’t have the right tools
to measure something or if a decimal continues to
infinity. If that is the case, sometimes scientists use
estimation or rounding numbers.

estimation
a rough guess of rounding numbers
a measurement giving a number a nearby value.
using reason and For example, if you are rounding to the
observation tenth place, and the hundredth digit is
five or more, round up. If the hundredth
digit is four or less, round down.

EVALUATING
SCIENTIFIC RESULTS
When reading another scientist’s findings, think critically
about the experiment. Ask yourself: Were observations
recorded during or after the experiment? Do the conclusions
make sense? Does the data conclusively prove the
hypothesis, or are there other ways of interpreting the
data? Can the results be repeated? Are the sources of
information reliable?
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You should also ask if the scientist or group conducting the
experiment was UNBIASED. Being unbiased means that you
have no special interest in the outcome of the experiment.
For example, if a drug company pays for an experiment to
test how well one of its new products works, there is a
special interest involved: The drug company profits if the
experiment shows that its product is effective. Therefore, the
experimenters aren’t objective: They might ensure the
conclusion is positive and benefits the drug company.
When assessing results, think about any biases that may
be present!

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w CheckYour Knowledge
1. D
 escribe the difference between precision and accuracy.

2. W
 hat does a hypothesis tell you in a lab report?

3. W
 hat does a procedure tell you in a lab report?

4. W
 hat should you include in a conclusion?

5. D
 escribe some reasons why you might be critical of
scientific findings.

6. D
 escribe a situation where you would need to use estimation
or round numbers.

7. Define “bias.”

answers 35
 Check Your ANSWERS
1. P
 recision is how consistent and exact a measurement is,
while accuracy is how close to the actual or true value a
measurement is.
2. A
 hypothesis describes the predictions you were testing.
3. A
 procedure is a list of the steps necessary to carry out the
experiment.
4. A
 summary of the results, a discussion of whether or not the
data supported the hypothesis, errors, and questions for further
investigation
5. T
 he person or group conducting the experiment is biased,
the data seems unreasonable, and/or the results aren’t
replicable.
6. A
 ny situation where making an exact measurement isn’t possible,
or if you are calculating a number with a repeating decimal
7. A
 bias is having a special interest that prevents you from
being objective or conducting a fair test of your hypothesis.

36
 Chapter 4
SI UNITS AND
MEASUREMENTS
The SI SYSTEM has a base unit, SI stands for SYSTÈME
or a standard unit, for every type INTERNATIONALE,
which is French for
of measurement. “International System.”
How chic!
SI BASE UNITS:
QUANTITY MEASURED SI UNIT (symbol)
length (or distance) meter (m)
mass gram (g)
weight (or force) newton (N)
volume (or capacity) liter (L)
temperature Kelvin (K)
time second (s)
electric current ampere (A)
amount of substrate mole (mol)
light intensity candela (cd)

37
Because we want to use SI units to describe both the
distance around someone’s bicep and the distance around
Earth, we need to be able to change the size of a unit to fit
the measurement. Scientists devised a system of prefixes that
multiplies the base unit by factors of 10. Just by switching the
prefix, an SI unit can be used for measurements big and small:

SI PREFIX (symbol) MULTIPLIER

giga- (G) 1,000,000,000
mega- (M) 1,000,000
kilo- (k) 1,000
hecto- (h) 100
deca- (da) 10
[base unit] 1
deci- (d) 0.1
centi- (c) 0.01
milli- (m) 0.001
micro- (μ) 0.000001
nano- (n) 0.000000001

Ninety-five percent of the world

uses SI units as the everyday
system of measurement.

38
 Mnemonic for
SI Prefixes:
Great Mighty King Henry
Died By Drinking Chunky
Milk Monday Night.

SI UNIT CONVERSIONS
Because the SI prefix system is based on powers of 10, it is
really easy to convert between units. If you are converting to
a smaller unit of measurement, simply move the decimal point
to the right as many places as the difference in place value.
If you are converting to a larger unit of measurement, move
the decimal point to the left as many places as the difference
in place value:
0.001 kilometers 0.0033 kilometers
EXAMPLES = =
1 meter 3.3 meters
= =
100 centimeters 330 centimeters

Common sense Tip

Remember to use the best-fitting unit. If you measured the volume
of the ocean with the same units you use to measure a glass of
milk, the numbers would be very difficult to work with. (The
volume of the ocean should be measured using much larger units.)

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