The Nature of Science
The Nature of Science
Overview
• Essential Question: How does science differ from
other ways of interpreting the world?
• Video Link: Natural Selection Video
• Lab activity: To Be or Not To Be….Science
• Classwork: Compare & Contrast Science with
Football, Social Studies, Media
• Summarizing Activity:
– Which Lens is Best?
– Categorizing Concepts
• Homework:
What is Science?
Science is an organized way of studying things and
finding answers to questions.
The purpose of science is to learn about the universe.
Science focuses on natural phenomena and processes.
Scientific knowledge is open to question and revision as
we come up with new ideas and discover new evidence.
What is Science?
Science is using a critical thinking process that uses
certain skills to solve problems.
A hallmark of science is expressing ideas to test.
• Scientist test their ideas using multiple lines of
evidence.
• Scientist use multiple research methods (experiments,
observations, comparisons, &modeling) to collect
evidence.
• Scientist can test ideas about events and processes
long past, very distant, and not really observable.
What is Science?
The Nature of Science
The real process of science is complex, interactive,
and can take many different paths.
Accepted scientific theories are not tenuous; they
must survive rigorous testing and be supported by
multiple lines of evidence to be accepted.
Science is a human endeavor.
3 Basic Questions
What’s there?
• New discoveries
How does it work?
• Observations, comparisons, studying, testing
How did it come to be that way?
• Reconstructing the history of the object being
studied.
Science Works in Specific Ways
Science relies on evidence from the natural
world and this evidence is examined and
interpreted through logic.
Creative flexibility is essential to scientific
thinking, however science follows a process
guided by certain parameters.
Science is embedded within culture of its times.
Science Principles
Science seeks to explain the natural world and
its explanations are tested using evidence from
the natural world.
Science assumes that we can learn about the
natural world by gathering evidence.
Science is a process
Scientific ideas are developed through reasoning.
Scientific claims are based on testing explanation against
observations of the natural world and rejecting the ones that
fail the test.
Scientific claims are subject to peer review and replication
The utilization of the “scientific method” is ongoing.
(question-hypothesis-procedure-experiment-data-conclusion)
Theories are central to scientific thinking.
Characteristics of Science
Conclusions of science are reliable, but may change
over time.
Science is not democratic.
Science is non-dogmatic.
Science cannot make moral or aesthetic decisions.
Science exist in cultural context
Science is not always a direct ascent to the truth.
• Galileo
• Speciation/Gradualism
• Alfred Wegener (Pangea/plate tectonics)
Science corrects itself
Science is a human endeavor.
• Falling in love with one’s own hypothesis (Lamark)
• Being drawn in by preconceptions (personal bias,
prejudice, misapprehensions)
Scientific Process (Method)
The scientific process is an organized method to solve a
problem using a series of procedures.
1. State the problem
2. Gather information
3. Form a hypothesis, or a prediction that can be tested
4. Test the hypothesis with an experiment
1. Variable
2. Control
1. Analyze the data.
2. Draw conclusions
3. Report the results
Scientific Set Up
Controls
• Control is the standard of
comparison in an
experiment.
• The control cannot change.
Variable
• Also called the experiment
group.
• The variable is something in an
experiment that can change.
• Only one variable can be
tested at a time.
• Independent Variable – cause
• Dependent Variable – result of
Scientific Theory
Scientific Theory
Scientific Law
An explanation of things or
events based on scientific
knowledge; the result of many
observations and experiments.
A statement about how things
repeatedly work in nature.