THE NATURE OF SCIENCE

What Science Is and Is Not

Science

Is a systematic process for learning about the world and testing our understanding of it.

Attempts to discover how the rules of the natural world operate and what effect they have.

Science

Examines the workings of the natural world by collection evidence.

Does not deal with the supernatural.

Is not a collection of never-changing facts about the world.

The Process of Science

The Process of Science

Consists of Testing ideas Exploration

and discovery Community

analysis and feedback

Benefits and outcomes

The Process of Science

Testing ideas Is at the heart of

science. Ideas are expressed

as a hypothesis A hypothesis is a

testable idea that attempts to explain a phenomenon or answer a scientific question.

The Process of Science

Hypotheses are used to generate predictions.

An experiment is an activity designed to test the validity of a prediction or a hypothesis.

An experiment includes an independent variable (IV), dependent variable (DV), and controlled variables (CV).

The Process of Science

The IV is the variable that the scientist manipulates.

The DV is the variable that depends on the conditions set up in the experiment.

The CV variables are kept constant.

The Process of Science Testing ideas

Includes gathering and interpreting data Data is evidence. Once data is collected and recorded it is analyzed to

determine if it supports or refutes a hypothesis.

The Process of Science

Exploration and discovery Often begins with the observation of some phenomenon that

needs to be explained. Observations are made with the senses or sensitive instruments.

Questions are explored through discussions with other scientist or reading scientific literature.

Sharing data and ideas often leads to an inspiration or the exploration of other relevant questions.

The Process of Science

Community analysis and feedback The scientific community, through peer review and

replication, helps to verify the accuracy results and contributes to the establishment of scientific theories.

The Process of Science

Benefits and outcomes Environmental ethics

explores how environmental science interacts with, and is guided by, a society’s morals and principles. Ethics is a branch of

philosophy that involves the study of behvaior.