Understanding Science

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Understanding Science

• And how to teach it

http//undsci.berkeley.edu/index.php
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What is Science?

• Discuss this in small groups (3-4 people) to
  answer the question. Write your answer on the
  board
• You have 4 minutes.

http//www.fnal.gov/pub/today/images06/ChalkBoard0
1.JPG
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Science is both a body of knowledge and a process.

• Can seem like a collection of isolated and static
  facts listed in a textbook
• Is a process of discovery that allows us to link
  isolated facts into coherent and comprehensive
  understandings of the natural world

http//kbagdanov.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/scien
tificmethod.jpg
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Interactive
http//undsci.berkeley.edu/index.php
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Science is exciting.

• Way of discovering what's in the universe and how
  those things
• work today
• worked in the past
• likely to work in the future
• Scientists are motivated by the thrill of seeing
  or figuring out something that no one has before

http//undsci.berkeley.edu/article/article/0_0_0/w
hatisscience_01
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Science is useful.

• The knowledge generated by science is powerful
  and reliable
• It can be used to develop new technologies, treat
  diseases, and deal with many other sorts of
  problems

http//z.about.com/d/history1900s/1/0/s/C/1/apollo
40.jpg
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Science is ongoing.

• Science is continually refining and expanding our
  knowledge of the universe, and as it does, it
  leads to new questions for future investigation
• Science will never be "finished"

Gravity
http//woodside.blogs.com/cosmologycuriosity/image
s/2008/03/09/einstein_newton_gravity_2.jpg
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Science is a global human endeavor.

• People all over the world participate in the
  process of science
• You can too!

BJ Shaw (2006) Hosford Middle School
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http//undsci.berkeley.edu/lessons/pdfs/tips.pdf
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http//undsci.berkeley.edu/article/whatisscience_0
3
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Discrepant Events

• View A Private Universe
• View Minds of Our Own
• Can We Believe Our Eyes?
• Lessons From Thin Air

http//www.learner.org/resources/series28.html
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Questions?
BJ Shaw (2008) Panchthus actualmente at Museo de
la Plata, Argentina