Section 1: Science As A Process
EXAM 1 Sept18th
Scientific Inquiry
Scientists, including biologists, use objective problem solving methods to observe
... [Show More] the
natural world and arrive at reasonable explanations of how the world works. Being
objective means that researchers should not be biased or influenced by someone's
personal beliefs, feelings or opinions. Scientific processes can be used to study
phenomena that can be observed and measured. They are not designed to study things
that cannot be observed or measured objectively.
There are some things that we can observe and have opinions about, but for which
there is no method of scientific measurement. For example, an art professor might bring
two paintings to class and ask you to use the process of science to find out which is the
better painting. Can you do what he asks? No--because "better" is not something that
can be objectively measured. If he had asked "Which painting is older?" or "Which
painting has a thicker coat of paint?" we could use the process of science to answer the
question. The age of the paint and the thickness of the paint are things that can be
objectively measured.
Scientific processes cannot be used to test beliefs (religious or other doctrines) because
beliefs are intangible and cannot be measured objectively. Religious explanations for
the variety of life forms on Earth cannot be tested and, thus are not scientifically valid.
This places religious explanations outside of the realm of science, just as the example
of works of art in the previous paragraph.
The process of scientific inquiry follows a basic pattern, or series of steps: 1) Make
observations;
2) Come up with possible explanation (hypothesis);
3) Make predictions based on a hypothesis;
4) Test predictions of the hypothesis in an experiment;
5) Decide if results of the test allow you to eliminate (reject) the hypothesis or
accept the hypothesis or revise the hypothesis.
6) Let other scientists know about your results.Go to this web site and focus on the interactive diagram, The Real Process of Science.
Roll your mouse over each of the four circles in the diagram to see the details.
http://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/0_0_0/howscienceworks_02
What You Need To Do
Study Guide Read this section of the study
guide.
Answer questions in
the study guide
The Tangled
Bank
None
Online
Videos/Activities
(1) The Real Process of
Science(2) Tale of A Peacock
2017 BIOL 1309 Redesign Team
Life on Earth Study Guide, 4th Edition Page 2
The process of scientific inquiry may sound very technical and complicated, but it's a
process that you already use every day. Here's an example of how someone might use
these steps (even if they aren't aware of the terminology) to solve a problem.
Joe goes to the parking lot after class, and finds that his car won't start (the initial
observation). His brain immediately starts thinking about possible reasons that the car
won't start (battery is dead, battery has been stolen, starter is broken, no gas in tank,
etc.). These are the hypotheses. Even if Joe isn't using words like "observation",
"hypothesis", "prediction" or "test" in his brain, he is following the steps described
above. He can't fix the problem unless he knows what it is, so he starts trying to
eliminate some of the hypotheses (he is narrowing down the possibilities). He does this
(probably unconsciously) by making predictions for each hypothesis and testing them.
The first two are easy to test [Show Less]