what is science?. the goal of science to investigate and understand the natural world to explain...
TRANSCRIPT
What is Science?
The Goal of Science
• to investigate and understand the natural world
• To explain events in the natural world
• To use those explanations to make useful predictions
What is science
• An organized way of using evidence to learn about the natural world.
Thinking like a scientist
• If the car wont start, what steps would people take to figure out why?
• 1) observations = gathering information about events or processes in a careful orderly way– Usually involves using your senses
• 2) data = the information gathered from your observations
• 3) inference = a logical interpretation based on prior knowledge or experience
Explaining and Interpreting Evidence
• Scientists explain events in nature by interpreting evidence
• Hypothesis = a proposed scientific explanation for a set of observations
• A hypothesis must in a form that can be tested!
Science as a way of knowing
• Science discusses many facts, however don’t think biology is a set of truths that never change.
• Science is a way of knowing!• Rather than unchanging knowledge, science is
an ongoing process that involves asking questions, observing, making inferences, and testing hypothesis.
How Science Works
Designing an experiment
• 1) Asking a Question– Identify a problem to be solved
• 2) Forming a Hypothesis– Using prior knowledge or experience to answer
the question
Designing an experiment
• 3) Setting up a controlled experiment
• Test your hypothesis with an experiment that only tests one variable at a time. All other variables must be kept the same
Variables
• Manipulated/Independent Variable = The variable that is purposely changed
• Responding/Dependent Variable = The variable that is observed– What you are testing for or looking to see happen
How a Theory Develops
• When many experiments/investigations build up evidence, a hypothesis can become so well supported that we call it a theory.
• Theory = a well tested explanation that unifies a broad range of observations.