AP Biology Scientific Method Review

Which of the following is a hypothesis?

• Grass is green
• If I leave milk out of the refrigerator, then it will grow bacteria
• An atom is made of protons, neutrons and electrons
• I wonder why the sky is blue?

An experiment is performed on plants to see how different liquids affect plant growth. Each plant in the experiment is given a different liquid; water, apple juice, or milk. Each plant has the same amount of soil, sunlight, and listens to the same music. In this investigation, the independent variable is ...

• The type of plant
• The amount of sunlight
• The type of music
• The type of liquid

A student wants to test the effects of type of exercise on heart rate.  What is the dependent variable?

• heart rate
• type of exercise
• amount of exercise
• time of day exercise occurs

A control is a group of subjects that

• does not receive the independent variable
• does not receive the dependent variable
• run the experiment
• increase the effect of the outside variables on the experiment

Which of the following is an example of qualitative data?

• the color of the fur of an animal
• the mating behavior of an animal
• the average number of offspring that an organism has
• the description of an odor that a chemical produces

There are two types of data. Which type of data involves numbers that are obtained by counting or measuring?

• quantitative
• qualitative

The purpose of a controlled experiment is to allow a scientist to isolate and test-

• a single variable
• several variables
• many data
• a conclusion

How does the control group differ from an experimental group in a scientific experiment?

• the control group does not contain the experimental data, whereas the experimental group does
• the control group does not contain the experimental variable, whereas the experimental group does not
• the control group is not tested or measured
• the control group contains more than one experimental variable

Which of the following must be done for the results of an experiment to be considered valid?

• the experiment must be repeated numerous times and the same results are obtained
• the results must be published in a national journal
• the results must be shown in a graph
• the results must be only quantitative

What is definition of null hypothesis?

• The independent variable has no effect on the dependent variable for the population
• The independent variable does have an effect on the dependent variable
• The dependent variable has no effect on the independent variable
• The dependent variable does have effec on the independent variable