As you come in, please:

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As you come in, please

• Get out a sheet of paper and put your name on it.
• Write a definition, from your own memory, for
  these terms hypothesis, scientific law,
  scientific theory, scientific model.
• On the back of the page, draw a picture of
  scientists doing science. Show some detail who
  is working, what they are doing, what they are
  using.

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What is Science?

• The Nature of Science and Scientific Inquiry

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Who is a scientist?
4
Who is a scientist?
Ecologists
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Who is a scientist?
Microbiologists
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Who is a scientist?
Taxonomists
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Who is a scientist?
Geneticists
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Who is a scientist?
Botanists
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Who is a scientist?
Molecular Biologists
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Who is a scientist?
Zoologists
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Science A Human Endeavor
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The Nature of Science

• Science is
• based on observations and inferences about the
  natural world.
• a creative human endeavor
• socially embedded.

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The Nature of Science

• Science produces
• Laws
• Theories
• Models
• knowledge that is always tentative (subject to
  change).

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Hypotheses

• A hypothesis
• is a statement that predicts the outcome of an
  experiment.
• is valid if it is testable, falsifiable, and
  specific not if is correct!
• is tested (not proven) by scientific inquiry.

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Scientific Laws

• A scientific law is a description of a natural
  phenomenon.
• Laws are based on empirical evidence.
• Examples
• Mendels laws of inheritance.
• The Hardy-Weinberg Law of population genetics.
• Laws may change with new knowledge.

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Scientific Theories

• A scientific theory is an explanation of a
  natural phenomenon.
• Theories are based on empirical evidence.
• Examples
• The theory of natural selection.
• Cell theory.
• Theories may change with new knowledge

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Scientific Inquiry

• The process that creates scientific knowledge is
  scientific inquiry.
• Inquiry can be
• Descriptive
• Correlational
• Experimental

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Descriptive Studies

• Descriptive studies describe the object of study
  in detail.
• Characteristic of young sciences.
• Some sciences, such as Astronomy and Taxonomy,
  rely almost entirely on descriptive studies.

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Correlational Studies

• Correlational studies describe two events that
  occur at the same time, and look for a
  relationship between the two.
• Many health studies are correlational they use
  large databases of health information, and try to
  answer questions when an experiment would be
  unethical.
• However, a correlation does not prove a cause.

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Experimental Studies

• Experimental studies involve setting up control
  and experimental groups in order to the effects
  of one variable on another.
• Experiments can be used to determine cause.
• Experiments are used to test hypotheses (not to
  prove them).