Scientific Inquiry

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Scientific Inquiry

• There will be a quiz tomorrow on the following 7
  statements.

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Scientific explanations are
1.
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1. based on empirical observations or experiments

• Observable, can collect data
• The appeal to authority as a valid explanation
  does not meet the requirements of science.
  Observations are based on sense experiences or on
  an extension of the senses through technology.

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2. made public

• Scientists make presentations at scientific
  meetings or publish in professional journals,
  making knowledge public and available to other
  scientists or anyone that wants to investigate
  the information.

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3. tentative

• Explanations can and do change. There are no
  scientific truths in an absolute sense.

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4. historical

• Past explanations are the basis for contemporary
  explanations, and those, in turn are the basis
  for future explanations.

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5. probabilistic

• The statistical view of nature is evident
  implicitly of explicitly when stating scientific
  predictions of phenomena or explaining the
  likelihood of events in actual situations.

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6. assume cause-effect relationships

• Much of science is directed toward determining
  causal relationships and developing explanations
  for interactions and linkages between objects,
  organisms and events.

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7. limited

• Scientific explanations sometimes are limited by
  technology, for example, the resolving power of
  microscopes and telescopes. New technologies can
  result in new fields of inquiry or extend current
  areas of study.

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• Science cannot answer all questions.
• Some questions are simply beyond the parameters
  of science.
• Many questions involving the
• meaning of life
• ethics
• theology
• are examples of questions that cannot be answered
  by science.

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CUBE 1

• How scientists do their work.
• You must write your own information down.
• Identify a question. (what number is on the
  bottom?)

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• Write down some observations or statements about
  the cube.
• Propose an answer to your questions using your
  observations. If __ then __ because.
• Could you be wrong? Could you be right?