FISH

Cold blooded vertebrate animals that live in water and use gills to obtain oxygen.Fish live in both fresh and salt water and can be found all over the world, except in some very hot larval springs and the Dead Sea because it is too salty.

REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS

REPTILES

Cold blooded vertebrates. This means they cannot maintain a body temperature much different than their environment.Most reptiles lay eggs with hard shells. Young fully formed reptiles hatch from the eggs. Reptiles usually lay their eggs in sand.Some snakes and lizards retain their eggs in their body and give birth to live young.Young reptiles have to care for themselves from the time they hatch.A reptile's skin is usually covered with scales.Reptiles have been on earth for over 300 million years - that is a very long time!

AMPHIBIANS

Cold blooded vertebrate animals that generally spend their larval or tadpole stage in fresh water. They do not transfer to the land until they are mature, returning to the water to breed.Amphibians were the first animals to venture on to land. They emerged from the oceans over 300 million years ago. Frogs, toads and salamanders are amphibians.

BIRDS

Warm blooded vertebrate animals with wings and bodies covered with feathers for warmth and to help them to fly. Birds have lungs for breathing and a heart with four chambers.All adult birds are covered in feathers even though some are born naked.The female lays the eggs and the young hatch from these. The young are cared for by the adult birds until they are old enough to fend for themselves.

MAMMALS

Warm blooded vertebrate animals which have hair or fur.Retain the young in their bodies until they are ready to be born. When the young are born they are fed by the mother on milk.Mammals have a highly developed nervous system. They live on land and in the sea.There is a very wide range of types in this group.The largest mammal is the blue whale which often exceeds 30m in length. Shrews, mice and mice which are the smallest are often less than 5cm, excluding their tail.Human beings are mammals.

Animal Kingdom

The animal kingdom is made up of two main groups VERTEBRATES and INVERTEBRATES.

VERTEBRATES:Animals with backbones are called
VERTEBRATES.Some VERTEBRATES are:Mammals, Birds, Reptiles,Amphibians and Fish.

INVERTEBRATES:Animals without backbones are called
INVERTEBRATES. Some INVERTEBRATES are: Molluscs,Worms, Arthropods,Echinoderms and Coelenterates.

Example of Scientific Method

Let’s put our knowledge of the Scientific Method to a realistic example that includes some of the terms you’ll need to use and understand.
Problem/Question
Jane watches her grandmother bake bread. She asks her grandmother what makes the bread rise.
She explains that yeast releases a gas as it feeds on sugar.
Jane wonders if the amount of sugar used in the recipe will affect the size of the bread loaf.
Observation/Research
Jane researches the areas of baking and fermentation and tries to come up with a way to test her question.
She keeps all of her information on this topic in a journal.
Jane talks with her teacher and she gives him a Experimental Design Diagram to help her set up her investigation.
Formulate a Hypothesis
After talking with his teacher and conducting further research, she comes up with a hypothesis.
“If more sugar is added, then the bread will rise higher.”
The hypothesis is an educated guess about the relationship between the independent and dependent variables.
The independent, or manipulated variable, is a factor that’s intentionally varied by the experimenter.
Jane is going to use 25g., 50g., 100g., 250g., 500g. of sugar in her experiment.
The dependent, or responding variable, is the factor that may change as a result of changes made in the independent variable.
In this case, it would be the size of the loaf of bread.
Experiment
Her teacher helps her come up with a procedure and list of needed materials.
She discusses with Jane how to determine the control group.
In a scientific experiment, the control is the group that serves as the standard of comparison.
The control group may be a “no treatment" or an “experimenter selected” group.
The control group is exposed to the same conditions as the experimental group, except for the variable being tested.
All experiments should have a control group.
Because her grandmother always used 50g. of sugar in her recipe, Jane is going to use that amount in her control group.
Jane’s teacher reminds her to keep all other factors the same so that any observed changes in the bread can be attributed to the variation in the amount of sugar.
The constants in an experiment are all the factors that the experimenter attempts to keep the same.
They might include:
Other ingredients to the bread recipe, oven used, rise time, brand of ingredients, cooking time, type of pan used, air temperature and humidity where the bread was rising, oven temperature, age of the yeast…
Jane writes out her procedure for her experiment along with a materials list in her journal. She has both of these checked by her teacher where she checks for any safety concerns.
Trials refer to replicate groups that are exposed to the same conditions in an experiment.
Jane is going to test each sugar variable 3 times.
Collect and Analyze Results
Jane comes up with a table she can use to record her data.
Jane gets all her materials together and carries out her experiment.
Size of Baked Bread (LxWxH) cm3
Size of Bread Loaf (cm3)
Trials

Amt. of Sugar (g.) 1 2 3 Average Size (cm3)
25 768 744 761 758
50 1296 1188 1296 1260
100 1188 1080 1080 1116
250 672 576 588 612
500 432 504 360 432

Jane examines her data and notices that her control worked the best in this experiment, but not significantly better than 100g. Of sugar.
Conclusion
Jane rejects her hypothesis, but decides to re-test using sugar amounts between 50g. and 100g.
Experiment
Once again, Jane gathers her materials and carries out her experiment.
Here are the results.
Size of Baked Bread (LxWxH) cm3
Size of Bread Loaf (cm3)
Trials
Amt. of Sugar (g.) 1 2 3 Average Size (cm3)
50 1296 1440 1296 1344
60 1404 1296 1440 1380
70 1638 1638 1560 1612
80 1404 1296 1296 1332
90 1080 1200 972 1084


Conclusion
Jane finds that 70g. of sugar produces the largest loaf.
Her hypothesis is accepted.
Communicate the Results
Jane tells her grandmother about her findings and prepares to present her project in Science class.

Scientific Method

Steps involved for Scientific Method
• State the problem.
• Make a hypothesis.
• Conduct the experiment.
• Record/analyze data.
• Make a conclusion.
• Report findings to others so they can repeat the experiment.