Nature of Science

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Nature of Science
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What is Science?

• Focuses exclusively on the natural world and aims
  to explain it
• Uses testable ideas
• Relies on evidence
• Involves the scientific community
• Leads to ongoing reasearch

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Scientists Code of Conduct

• Pay attention to what other people have done
• Expose your ideas to testing
• Assimilate the evidence (Cannot ignore evidence)
• Openly communicate ideas and tests to others
• Play fair Act with scientific integrity

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The Scientific Method
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The Scientific Method

• Is not linear
• Does involve
• Observations
• Questioning
• Controlled experiments
• Data
• Arriving to conclusions
• Communicating
• Repeating and revising

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Before an Experiment

• Observations are made
• Research may occur
• A testable idea is made (HYPOTHESIS)

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During an Experiment

• Must have an Independent variable
• This is what is being tested
• Must have a dependent variable
• This is what is being measured
• Must have controls
• Everything must be kept the same! Except the
  independent variable
• Must be repeated
• Data is collected

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After the Experiment

• Data is analyzed
• Conclusions may be drawn
• Ideas are often revised, rejected, or tested in a
  different way
• Data is communicated

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Remember

• The scientific method is not so sequential

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Theories, Laws, and Hypotheses

• Hypothesis- a testable idea that is based on
  observations to explain a natural phenomenon
• Theory- a well tested hypothesis, explanation to
  a natural phenomenon that is supported by a large
  amount of data
• Law- describes a natural phenomenon, which allows
  us to makes predictions under certain conditions
  (does not explain why)

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Conflict and Bias

• Sometimes a controlled experiment can not be done
  
• When?
• Bias is when there is a conflict of interest
• Evidence can be misleading

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Questions?

• "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will
  land among the stars."     Les Brown