NB G6 Science cheat sheet

Scientific method order: observe and question, form hypothesis, design controlled experiment, collect and analyze data, draw conclusion, communicate results.

Independent variable is what the experimenter deliberately changes; dependent variable is what is measured in response.

Control group receives no treatment or a standard treatment so results can be compared against the experimental group.

Constants are factors kept identical across all trials; changing more than one variable makes results unreliable.

A hypothesis must be testable and falsifiable, and is supported or rejected by evidence, never proven absolutely.

Quantitative data are numbers with units; qualitative data are descriptions such as color, texture, or smell.

Mean is the average, median is the middle value, mode is most frequent, and range is highest minus lowest.

An observation uses the senses or instruments; an inference is a logical explanation drawn from observations.

Valid conclusions require repeated trials and larger sample sizes to reduce the effect of random error.

Food chain energy flow: producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, decomposer; arrows point in the direction energy moves.

Only about 10 percent of energy passes to the next trophic level; the rest is lost mainly as heat.

Photosynthesis uses carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight to make glucose and release oxygen.

Cellular respiration uses glucose and oxygen to release energy, carbon dioxide, and water.

Producers make their own food, consumers eat other organisms, and decomposers break down dead matter and recycle nutrients.

A habitat is where an organism lives; a niche is its role, including food, shelter, and behavior.

Biotic factors are living parts of an ecosystem; abiotic factors include sunlight, water, temperature, soil, and air.

Mutualism benefits both species, commensalism benefits one with no effect on the other, and parasitism benefits one while harming the other.

Carrying capacity is the largest population an ecosystem can support given available resources.

Cell theory: all living things are made of cells, the cell is the basic unit of life, and cells come from existing cells.

Plant cells have a cell wall, chloroplasts, and a large central vacuole; animal cells do not have a cell wall or chloroplasts.

Nucleus controls cell activities, mitochondria release energy, ribosomes build proteins, and the cell membrane controls what enters and exits.

Multicellular organisms are organized as cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, and the whole organism.

Vertebrates have a backbone and include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals; invertebrates lack a backbone.

Classification levels from broadest to narrowest: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.

Binomial naming uses genus and species, with genus capitalized and species lowercase, both italicized or underlined.

Structural adaptations are body features, behavioral adaptations are actions, and physiological adaptations are internal processes.

Fossils, comparative anatomy, and similarities in embryos provide evidence that species share common ancestors.

Matter is anything with mass and volume; mass is measured in grams and volume in milliliters or cubic centimeters.

Density equals mass divided by volume; an object denser than water sinks and one less dense floats.

Physical properties include color, density, melting point, and conductivity; chemical properties describe how a substance reacts.

Physical changes alter form or state without new substances; chemical changes produce new substances with different properties.

Signs of chemical change include gas production, color change, precipitate formation, and temperature change.

States of matter: solids have fixed shape and volume, liquids have fixed volume but flow, gases fill their container.

Particles gain energy and move faster during melting, evaporation, and boiling; they lose energy during freezing and condensation.

Mixtures can be separated by physical means such as filtering or evaporating; compounds can be separated only by chemical means.

In a closed system, mass is conserved during physical and chemical changes.

Speed equals distance divided by time; velocity includes speed plus direction.

Balanced forces produce no change in motion; unbalanced forces cause acceleration.

Friction opposes motion between surfaces, and air resistance is a form of friction in gases.

Gravity pulls objects toward Earth, and weight is the measure of gravitational force on an object.

Newton's first law: an object at rest stays at rest and a moving object keeps moving unless a net force acts.

Newton's third law: every action force has an equal and opposite reaction force.

Kinetic energy is energy of motion; potential energy is stored energy based on position or condition.

Energy forms include light, heat, sound, electrical, chemical, and mechanical; energy is conserved but can change form.

Simple machines such as levers, pulleys, and inclined planes trade force for distance but do not reduce total work.

Earth's layers from outside in: crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core; the outer core is liquid and the inner core is solid.

The water cycle steps are evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection or runoff.

The rock cycle includes igneous rock from cooled magma, sedimentary rock from compacted layers, and metamorphic rock from heat and pressure.

Weathering breaks rock down, erosion moves the material, and deposition drops it in a new location.

Tectonic plate movement causes earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain building, and seafloor spreading.

The Sun drives weather and the water cycle; uneven heating of Earth's surface causes wind and convection.

Soil layers include topsoil rich in humus, subsoil, and weathered bedrock.

Fossils in rock layers help order events, and sedimentary layers usually form with the oldest at the bottom.

Renewable resources such as sunlight and wind are replaced naturally; fossil fuels are nonrenewable.

Solar system order from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.

Inner planets are small, rocky, and close to the Sun; outer planets are large and mostly gas or ice giants.

Earth's rotation on its axis causes day and night; its revolution around the Sun causes the year and seasons.

Seasons result from the tilt of Earth's axis, not from distance from the Sun.

The Moon orbits Earth in about 28 days, and its phases depend on the positions of the Sun, Earth, and Moon.

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon blocks the Sun; a lunar eclipse occurs when Earth's shadow falls on the Moon.

Gravity keeps planets in orbit, with stronger gravitational pull from more massive objects and shorter distances.

The Sun is a star, the Moon is a natural satellite, and asteroids and comets orbit the Sun.

Stars appear to move across the night sky because Earth rotates.

Technology applies scientific knowledge to solve practical problems and meet human needs.

Design process steps: identify the problem, research, plan and build a prototype, test, evaluate, and redesign.

A trade-off is giving up one benefit to gain another; every technology has costs and benefits.

Renewable energy sources include solar, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal; fossil fuels are nonrenewable and pollute.

Human activities such as deforestation, pollution, and burning fuels affect ecosystems and climate.

Conservation practices include reducing, reusing, recycling, and protecting habitats.

Scientific discoveries can raise ethical questions, and decisions should weigh evidence, risk, and impact.

Fair tests and peer review help ensure that scientific claims shared with the public are reliable.

Scientific method order: observe and question, form hypothesis, design controlled experiment, collect and analyze data, draw conclusion, communicate results.

Independent variable is what the experimenter deliberately changes; dependent variable is what is measured in response.

Control group receives no treatment or a standard treatment so results can be compared against the experimental group.

Constants are factors kept identical across all trials; changing more than one variable makes results unreliable.

A hypothesis must be testable and falsifiable, and is supported or rejected by evidence, never proven absolutely.

Quantitative data are numbers with units; qualitative data are descriptions such as color, texture, or smell.

Mean is the average, median is the middle value, mode is most frequent, and range is highest minus lowest.

An observation uses the senses or instruments; an inference is a logical explanation drawn from observations.

Valid conclusions require repeated trials and larger sample sizes to reduce the effect of random error.

Food chain energy flow: producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, decomposer; arrows point in the direction energy moves.

Only about 10 percent of energy passes to the next trophic level; the rest is lost mainly as heat.

Photosynthesis uses carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight to make glucose and release oxygen.

Cellular respiration uses glucose and oxygen to release energy, carbon dioxide, and water.

Producers make their own food, consumers eat other organisms, and decomposers break down dead matter and recycle nutrients.

A habitat is where an organism lives; a niche is its role, including food, shelter, and behavior.

Biotic factors are living parts of an ecosystem; abiotic factors include sunlight, water, temperature, soil, and air.

Mutualism benefits both species, commensalism benefits one with no effect on the other, and parasitism benefits one while harming the other.

Carrying capacity is the largest population an ecosystem can support given available resources.

Cell theory: all living things are made of cells, the cell is the basic unit of life, and cells come from existing cells.

Plant cells have a cell wall, chloroplasts, and a large central vacuole; animal cells do not have a cell wall or chloroplasts.

Nucleus controls cell activities, mitochondria release energy, ribosomes build proteins, and the cell membrane controls what enters and exits.

Multicellular organisms are organized as cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, and the whole organism.

Vertebrates have a backbone and include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals; invertebrates lack a backbone.

Classification levels from broadest to narrowest: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.

Binomial naming uses genus and species, with genus capitalized and species lowercase, both italicized or underlined.

Structural adaptations are body features, behavioral adaptations are actions, and physiological adaptations are internal processes.

Fossils, comparative anatomy, and similarities in embryos provide evidence that species share common ancestors.

Matter is anything with mass and volume; mass is measured in grams and volume in milliliters or cubic centimeters.

Density equals mass divided by volume; an object denser than water sinks and one less dense floats.

Physical properties include color, density, melting point, and conductivity; chemical properties describe how a substance reacts.

Physical changes alter form or state without new substances; chemical changes produce new substances with different properties.

Signs of chemical change include gas production, color change, precipitate formation, and temperature change.

States of matter: solids have fixed shape and volume, liquids have fixed volume but flow, gases fill their container.

Particles gain energy and move faster during melting, evaporation, and boiling; they lose energy during freezing and condensation.

Mixtures can be separated by physical means such as filtering or evaporating; compounds can be separated only by chemical means.

In a closed system, mass is conserved during physical and chemical changes.

Speed equals distance divided by time; velocity includes speed plus direction.

Balanced forces produce no change in motion; unbalanced forces cause acceleration.

Friction opposes motion between surfaces, and air resistance is a form of friction in gases.

Gravity pulls objects toward Earth, and weight is the measure of gravitational force on an object.

Newton's first law: an object at rest stays at rest and a moving object keeps moving unless a net force acts.

Newton's third law: every action force has an equal and opposite reaction force.

Kinetic energy is energy of motion; potential energy is stored energy based on position or condition.

Energy forms include light, heat, sound, electrical, chemical, and mechanical; energy is conserved but can change form.

Simple machines such as levers, pulleys, and inclined planes trade force for distance but do not reduce total work.

Earth's layers from outside in: crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core; the outer core is liquid and the inner core is solid.

The water cycle steps are evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection or runoff.

The rock cycle includes igneous rock from cooled magma, sedimentary rock from compacted layers, and metamorphic rock from heat and pressure.

Weathering breaks rock down, erosion moves the material, and deposition drops it in a new location.

Tectonic plate movement causes earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain building, and seafloor spreading.

The Sun drives weather and the water cycle; uneven heating of Earth's surface causes wind and convection.

Soil layers include topsoil rich in humus, subsoil, and weathered bedrock.

Fossils in rock layers help order events, and sedimentary layers usually form with the oldest at the bottom.

Renewable resources such as sunlight and wind are replaced naturally; fossil fuels are nonrenewable.

Solar system order from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.

Inner planets are small, rocky, and close to the Sun; outer planets are large and mostly gas or ice giants.

Earth's rotation on its axis causes day and night; its revolution around the Sun causes the year and seasons.

Seasons result from the tilt of Earth's axis, not from distance from the Sun.

The Moon orbits Earth in about 28 days, and its phases depend on the positions of the Sun, Earth, and Moon.

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon blocks the Sun; a lunar eclipse occurs when Earth's shadow falls on the Moon.

Gravity keeps planets in orbit, with stronger gravitational pull from more massive objects and shorter distances.

The Sun is a star, the Moon is a natural satellite, and asteroids and comets orbit the Sun.

Stars appear to move across the night sky because Earth rotates.

Technology applies scientific knowledge to solve practical problems and meet human needs.

Design process steps: identify the problem, research, plan and build a prototype, test, evaluate, and redesign.

A trade-off is giving up one benefit to gain another; every technology has costs and benefits.

Renewable energy sources include solar, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal; fossil fuels are nonrenewable and pollute.

Human activities such as deforestation, pollution, and burning fuels affect ecosystems and climate.

Conservation practices include reducing, reusing, recycling, and protecting habitats.

Scientific discoveries can raise ethical questions, and decisions should weigh evidence, risk, and impact.

Fair tests and peer review help ensure that scientific claims shared with the public are reliable.