Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Lesson Overview 1.1 What Is Science?

Presentation on theme: "Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Lesson Overview 1.1 What Is Science?"— Presentation transcript:

1 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Lesson Overview 1.1 What Is Science?

2 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? THINK ABOUT IT Where did plants and animals come from? How did I come to be? Humans have tried to answer these questions in different ways. Some ways of explaining the world have stayed the same over time. Science, however, is always changing.

3 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? What Science Is and Is Not What are the goals of science? The goals of science are to -provide natural explanations for events in the natural world, -use those explanations to understand patterns in nature, and -to make useful predictions about natural events.

4 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? What Science Is and Is Not Biology is not just a collection of never-changing facts or unchanging beliefs about the world. Some scientific “facts” will change soon -if they haven’t changed already -scientific ideas are open to testing, discussion, and revision.

5 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Science as a Way of Knowing Science is an organized way of gathering and analyzing evidence about the natural world. For example, researchers can use science to answer questions about: -how whales communicate, -how far they travel, and -how they are affected by environmental changes.

6 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Science as a Way of Knowing Science deals only with the natural world. Scientists -collect and organize information in an orderly way, -look for patterns and connections among events, -propose explanations based on evidence, not belief, -test explanations with more evidence.

7 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Science, Change, and Uncertainty Despite all our scientific knowledge, much of nature remains a mystery. Almost every major scientific discovery raises more questions than it answers. This constant change shows that science continues to advance.

8 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Science, Change, and Uncertainty Science rarely “proves” anything in absolute terms. Scientists aim for the best understanding of the natural world that current methods can reveal. Science has allowed us to build enough understanding to make useful predictions about the natural world.

9 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Scientific Methodology: The Heart of Science What procedures are at the core of scientific methodology? -Observing and asking questions, -making inferences and forming hypotheses, -conducting controlled experiments, -collecting and analyzing data, and -drawing conclusions.

10 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Observing and Asking Questions Scientific investigations begin with observation. Observation - the act of noticing and describing events or processes in a careful, orderly way. For example, researchers observed that marsh grass grows taller in some places than others. This observation led to a question:

11 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Observing and Asking Questions Why do marsh grasses grow to different heights in different places?

12 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Inferring and Forming a Hypothesis After posing questions, scientists use further observations to make inferences. Inference - logical interpretations based on what is already known. Inference can lead to a hypothesis. Hypothesis - scientific explanation for a set of observations that can be tested in ways that support or reject it.

13 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Inferring and Forming a Hypothesis For example, researchers inferred that something limits grass growth in some places. Based on their knowledge of salt marshes, they hypothesized that marsh grass growth is limited by available nitrogen.

14 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Designing Controlled Experiments Testing a scientific hypothesis often involves designing an experiment that keeps track variables. Variable – factors in an experiment that can change. Examples of variables include temperature, light, time, and availability of nutrients.

15 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Designing Controlled Experiments A hypothesis should be tested by an experiment in which only one variable is changed. All other variables should be kept unchanged, or controlled. This type of experiment is called a controlled experiment.

16 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Controlling Variables Why is it important to control variables? If several variables are changed in the experiment, researchers can’t easily tell which variable is responsible for any results they observe.

17 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Controlling Variables Independent variable -deliberately changed -also called the manipulated variable Dependent variable -observed -changes in response to the independent variable -also called the responding variable An experiment is divided into control and experimental groups.

18 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Control and Experimental Groups Experimental group -contains the independent variable. Control group -exposed to same conditions as experimental group -does not contain the independent variable. Scientists set up several sets of control and experimental groups to try to reproduce or replicate their observations.

19 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Designing Controlled Experiments For example, the researchers selected similar plots of marsh grass. All plots had similar: -plant density, -soil type, -input of freshwater, -height above average tide level. The plots were divided into control and experimental groups.

20 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Designing Controlled Experiments The researchers added nitrogen fertilizer (independent variable) to the experimental plots only. They then observed the growth of marsh grass (dependent variable) in both experimental and control plots.

21 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Collecting and Analyzing Data Scientists record experimental observations, gathering information called data. There are two main types of data: quantitative data and qualitative data.

22 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Collecting and Analyzing Data Quantitative data are numbers obtained by counting or measuring. In the marsh grass experiment, it could include the number of plants per plot, plant sizes, and growth rates.

23 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Collecting and Analyzing Data Qualitative data are descriptive and involve characteristics that cannot usually be counted. In the marsh grass experiment, it might include notes about foreign objects in the plots, or whether the grass was growing upright or sideways.

24 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Research Tools Scientists choose appropriate tools for collecting and analyzing data. Tools include simple devices such as: -metersticks, -sophisticated equipment such as machines that measure nitrogen content, and -charts and graphs that help scientists organize their data.

25 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Research Tools This graph shows how grass height changed over time.

26 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Research Tools In the past, data were recorded by hand. Today, researchers typically enter data into computers, which make organizing and analyzing data easier.

27 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Sources of Error Researchers must be careful to avoid errors in data collection and analysis. Tools used to measure the size and weight of marsh grasses, for example, have limited accuracy. Data analysis and sample size must be chosen carefully. The larger the sample size, the more reliably researchers can analyze variation and evaluate differences between experimental and control groups.

28 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Drawing Conclusions Scientists use experimental data as evidence to support, refute, or revise the hypothesis being tested, and to draw a valid conclusion.

29 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Analysis showed that marsh grasses grew taller than controls by adding nitrogen.

30 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Drawing Conclusions New data may indicate that researchers have the right general idea but are wrong about a few particulars. In that case: -the original hypothesis is reevaluated and revised, -new predictions are made, -new experiments are designed.

31 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? Drawing Conclusions Hypotheses may have to be revised and experiments redone several times before a final hypothesis is supported and conclusions can be drawn.

32 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? When Experiments Are Not Possible It is not always possible to test a hypothesis with an experiment. In some of these cases, researchers devise hypotheses that can be tested by observations. Animal behavior researchers, for example, might want to learn how animal groups interact in the wild by making field observations that disturb the animals as little as possible.

33 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? When Experiments Are Not Possible Researchers analyze data from these observations and devise hypotheses that can be tested in different ways. Sometimes, ethics prevents certain types of experiments— especially on human subjects. For example, medical researchers who suspect that a chemical causes cancer, for example, would search for volunteers who have already been exposed to the chemical and compare them to people who have not been exposed to the chemical.

34 Lesson Overview Lesson Overview What Is Science? When Experiments Are Not Possible The researchers still try to -control as many variables as possible, -exclude volunteers who have serious health problems or known genetic conditions. Medical researchers always try to study large groups of subjects so that individual genetic differences do not produce misleading results.