The Nature of Science

Chapter 1 Section 1

Reading the Textbook

• First it is important to understand how to utilize the textbook for the resources that it has.

• When reading the book look for the highlighted words.– These highlighted words are often key terms that

are defined for you.– Often these definitions are the exact ones I expect

you to know and use of the tests and quizzes.

Reading the Textbook continued…

• These highlighted terms often signal where you can find the real important information in the chapter.

• This is useful because often textbooks are filled with examples or some material that you may not be expected to learn.

Nature of Science

• When learning about the nature of science first we must define what science is…– Science is defined as a process of observing,

studying, and thinking about things in your world to gain knowledge.

• In all fields of study, scientists use a problem solving procedure called the scientific method.

Scientific Method

Identify a problem

Gather information (research)

Make Hypotheses

Test the hypotheses

Analyze the results

Draw conclusions

Scientific Method

• Identify a problem- First we have to figure out what we need to solve, what is the question that needs an answer.

• Gather information- This is the research part, so getting information about the topic of your question/problem.

• Make hypotheses- Hypothesis is an educated guess

Scientific Method

• Test the hypotheses- When you test the hypotheses you are usually performing an experiment which will provide you with the data needed to answer your initial question.

• Analyze the results- This is where you are looking for trends and patterns in your data that you collected during the experiment.

• Draw conclusion- At the end of your experiment after you have analyzed you will see if the data points towards an answer to your question. It may or may not agree with your hypothesis!

Demonstration

COKE VS. DIET COKE

Coke vs. Diet Coke• Compare and Contrast- What are the

similarities….Vinn Diagram

Only applies to Coke

Only applies to Diet Coke

Applies to Both

Coke vs. Diet Coke• With this research (Gather information) we

can now make a hypothesis as to what may happen when I place these sodas into water.

Now it is time to test

the hypotheses

Coke vs. Diet Coke• Possible Responses:– They weren’t filled right at the plant– The different colored paint is heavier– One can is flat, and it leaked the carbon dioxide

out.– nutra sweet is lighter than sugar

So why does this happen?

Coke vs. Diet Coke• The coke can is more dense because there is

more sugar in it than there is nutra sweet in a can of diet coke. Density is how much mass there is per volume

Coke: 39,000 mg of sugar

Diet Coke: 188 mg grams of nutra sweet

207 times as much mass for sweetener in coke