Exercises for Living Organisms

Let’s see how much you’ve picked up with these experiments and the reading – answer as best as you can. (No peeking at the answers until you’re done!) Just relax and see what jumps to mind when you read the question. You can also print these out and jot down your answers in your science notebook.

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1. What is science?
2. What do scientists do if their conclusions go against what they used to think?
3. What are some observations you have made today?
4. Why are hypotheses sometimes called educated guesses?
5. Your friend has a hypothesis that some plants die because witches cast evil spells on them. Is this a good hypothesis? Why or why not?
6. If a scientist’s hypothesis is wrong, does that mean their experiment was bad?
7. Why should you do research before starting an investigation?
8. How can you tell if you can trust a particular web site, when doing research?
9. A student does an experiment to see if rap music helps plants grow. She takes 10 plants, waters them, gives them sunlight, and plays rap music for them. They all grow beautifully. Has she proven that rap music helps plants grow? Why or why not?
10. In question 9, what important group is missing? Describe what the student would (or would not) do to this group?
11. What are some ways scientists communicate results?
12. Why is it important to communicate results?
13. Why do scientists use models?
14. What is one thing our body does to keep a constant temperature?
15. Why do offspring tend to look like their parents?
16. What are cells?
17. How are autotrophs and heterotrophs different?
18. Why do we need to classify organisms?
19. If two animals were in the same phylum, would they be more or less similar than two animals in different phyla? (Phyla is the plural of phylum.)
20. What is the first word in an organism’s scientific name?
21. Why are scientific names useful?

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