This link strengthens my understanding of the three. Control variables are things that kept the same through out the experiment. The independent variable is what you, the scientist changes. The dependent variable is the factor that changes as a result of the independent variable.
This link explains how Observations are different than inferences. An observation is something you see, smell, touch, hear or taste whereas an inference is an educated guess based upon an observation. For example It will rain because there are many dark clouds. There are also two types of observations Quanitative and Qaulitative. Quanitative deals with numbers and mesurments. For example The tree is 12 feet. Qaulitatvive is anything that you can't mesure like colors and texture. The fence is black.
At home I went on quizlet to help me remember the order of the steps. The first step is state the problem that you observe. Next is hypothesis it is a 'If Then' statement which states what you believe will happen in the experiment. The third step is to test the problem or question. Then you collect your data. Finally you shall make a conclusion based on your data.