Name: _____________________

Science Triple #3

7th Grade

Scientific Practices

Some students have designed a new bubble gum

chewing experiment. They are going to chew gum
for 1 minute and then stretch the gum as far as
they can before the gum breaks and measure that
length. They are going to repeat the process for
two more additional minutes of chewing. Below is
their investigative question:
Question: How does the amount of time spent
chewing a piece of bubblegum affect how far the
gum will stretch without breaking?

Period: _______

Due 9/23

1. What is the manipulated

(independent)
variable?

2. What is the responding

(dependent)
variable?

3. List the materials needed for this

investigation:

Energy and Systems

1. Name one form of Kinetic

Energy in the person chewing
gum system.

There are 5 forms of Kinetic Energy: heat, light,

sound, electricity, and motion
There are 3 forms of Potential Energy: positional
potential, chemical potential and nuclear

2. Name the location of the energy

you described in Question #1.

A person chewing bubble gum can be thought of as a

3. Name a form of Potential

Energy in the person chewing
gum system.

system. Use the forms of energy listed above to help you

answer the questions to the right.

4. Name the location of the energy

you described in Question #3.

Content Review
1.
Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space.
Energy does not have any mass (it is not made of molecules)
and it causes changes in matter.
Look at the words listed to the right. Place an M on the

Cell Phone_____________

2. Battery ____________
3. Light from a lamp _________
4. Lamp ___________

line if the word represents a type of matter. Place an E

on the line if it represents a type of energy.

5. Heat from a fire __________

By Tami Port, MS, Yahoo Contributor Network

Jul 29 , 2009

Types of Scientists and What They Do

Different Disciplines of Hard Science

Have you ever thought about becoming a scientist? You are not alone! Science a tool; a
special way of investigating a question. When scientists try to reveal the answers to
questions about the world around us, they use a special process called the scientific
method. The steps of the scientific method help ensure that bias-personal beliefs, hidden
agendas, and just plain sloppy investigation-doesn't influence scientific results.
Although the scientific method may not be a riveting topic for many, there are certainly
many very cool scientific disciplines to study. When I went to school for my science
degrees, my aim was to become a primatologist; a scientist, like Jane Goodall and
the late Diane Fossey, who studies the biology and of behavior monkeys and apes;
as well as those well-known hairless apes, humans.
Hard Science and Soft Science
Don't worry. If you are interested in becoming a scientist, but primates aren't your
thing, there are plenty of other "-ologies" out there. Scientific disciplines are
divided into the "hard sciences" and the "soft sciences." Although the boundary
between the two is not always distinct, the hard sciences are those disciplines that
are more quantitative (based on measurement) and objective (less colored by personal belief). For example,
psychology (the science of mental life) is considered a soft science, whereas neurology (the study of brain anatomy
and function) is a hard science. Here is a brief glossary of the main branches of hard science, each of which contains
many dozens of specific subdisciplines.
Disciplines of Hard Science
Astronomy: The study of matter in outer space, with emphasis on the positions, dimensions, distribution,
motion, composition, energy, and evolution of celestial bodies and phenomena (like planets, stars, comets,
galaxies, black holes, etc).

Biology: The study of living organisms. There are many, many subdisciplines to this science, including cell
biology, microbiology (microbes), zoology (animals), botany (plants), genetics (genes), immunology (the
immune system), ecology (relationships between organisms and their environment), just to name a few.

Chemistry: The science of matter; the branch of the natural sciences that deals with the composition of
substances (atoms, molecules and compounds) and their properties and reactions.

Geology: The science of the solid and liquid matter that makes up the Earth. Geology includes also several
subdisciplines, such as climatology, vulcanology (volcanos), oceanography, paleontology (fossils), glaciology
(glaciers), and gemology.

Mathematics: This is a group of related sciences that use an abstract representational system to deal with
the logic of quantity, shape and structure, and the relationship between these concepts. If you can count your
fingers, you are doing simple mathematics, but the field is much more complicated than counting.

Physics: The branch of science that pursues the study of properties and interactions of space, time, matter
and energy.

Can't make up your mind? Don't worry, there are also branches of science that are a mix of more than one discipline,
such as Geochemistry, Biochemistry, Astrophysics and Geophysics. Whatever your interest, there is probably an
-ology for you.

1. What is the difference between a hard branch of science and a soft branch of
science?

2.

What is Physics the study of?