Science as a Way of Knowing The Scientific Method Review

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Science as a Way of KnowingThe Scientific Method
Review

• Botkin chapter 2

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Science as Process

• Science is a process of discovery
• Scientific ideas change
• Sometimes a science undergoes a fundamental
  revolution of ideas

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Science as Process

• The criterion by which we decide whether a
  statement is in the realm of science
• Whether it is possible, at least in
  principle, to disprove the statement.

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Disprovability

• If you can think of a test that could disprove a
  statement, then that statement can be said to be
  scientific.
• If you cant design a test, then the statement is
  said to be nonscientific.

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Science as Process

• Scientific MethodA set of methods which are the
  systematic methods by which scientists
  investigate natural phenomena.

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The Scientific Method in Brief!
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Assumptions of Science

• Events in the natural world follow patterns that
  can be understood through careful observation and
  scientific analysis.
• These basic patterns and rules that describe them
  are the same through the universe
• Science is based on a type of reasoning known as
  induction
• Generalizations can be subjected to tests that
  may disprove them.
• Although new evidence can disprove existing
  theories, science can never provide absolute
  proof of the truth of its theories.

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The Nature of Scientific Proof

• Deductive reasoning
• Drawing a conclusion form initial definitions and
  assumptions by means of logical reasoning.
• Inductive reasoning
• Drawing a conclusion from a limited set of
  specific observations.

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Measurements and Uncertainty

• Experimental errors
• Measurement of uncertainties and other errors
  that occur in experiments.
• Accuracy
• The extent to which a measurement agrees with
  the accepted value.
• Precision
• The degree of exactness with which a quantity is
  measured.

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Observations, Facts, Inferences, and Hypotheses

• Observations
• The basis of science, may be made through any of
  the five senses or by instruments that measure
  beyond what we can see.
• Inference
• A generalization that arises from a set of
  observations.
• Fact
• When what is observed about a particular thing is
  agreed on by all or almost all.

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Observations, Facts, Inferences, and Hypotheses

• Hypothesis
• An explanation set forth in a manner that can be
  tested and is capable of being disproved.
• Independent variable
• The variable that is manipulated by the
  investigator affects the dependent variable.
• Dependent variable
• A variable taken as the outcome of one or more
  variables.

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Example

• 1. What are the independent and dependent
  variables in the following research topic
• "There will be a statistically significant
  difference in graduation rates of at-risk
  high-school seniors who participate in an
  intensive study program as opposed to at-risk
  high-school seniors who do not participate in the
  intensive study program.
• 2. What would be the controlled variables?

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Observations, Facts, Inferences, and Hypotheses

• Model
• A deliberately simplified explanation of complex
  phenomena.
• Models are often
• physical
• Mathematical
• Pictorial
• or
• Computer-simulated

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Observations, Facts, Inferences, and Hypotheses

• Theories
• Models that offer broad, fundamental explanations
  of many observations.
• Will often explain a scientific law.

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Science, Pseudoscience, and Frontier Science

• Pseudoscience
• Some ideas presented as scientific are in fact
  not scientific, because they are
• untestable,
• lack empirical support,
• or are based on faulty reasoning or poor
  scientific methodology