Name Date Class

The Skills of Science

During a series of deep-water dives to the reefs off Key Largo, a scientist videotaped
several parrotfish in their natural habitat. Later, viewing the videotape, the scientist
wrote out her notes. Read the list of entries from the scientist’s field notebook. Then use
a separate sheet of paper to answer the questions that follow.

Quantitative and Qualitative Observations

June 11, 2010, 9:35 a.m., videotape 06112010 off Key Largo

01 rainbow parrotfish A with bright orange and green color

02 rainbow parrotfish A elongated body

03 rainbow parrotfish A approximately 1.1 meters long

04 parrotfish B blunt-headed

05 parrotfish B smaller than parrotfish A

06 parrotfish B approx. 12 kilograms

07 parrotfish B remains nearly still while scraping jagged, roughly textured rock

formation

08 body of parrotfish B features large scales

09 bright blue beak of parrotfish B shaped like bird’s beak

10 parrotfish C approx. 50 centimeters

11 parrotfish C is species queen parrotfish (Scarus vetula)

1. Which entry items in the list are qualitative observations?

2. What quantitative observation was made about parrotfish B?
In which entry does it appear?
3. Which sense did the scientist use to make these observations? Why
were other senses not used to observe the parrotfish habitat?
4. Which entry item is an inference based on observation? Explain.