Links
Objectives
- Describe some characteristics of science
- Outline the history of the development of scientific practices
- Describe the role of controls and variables in an experiment
Key points
- Characteristics of science
- question-driven
- universal
- based on universal laws
- always open to new evidence
- dependent upon peer review
- History of scientific thought
- Egyptian (1000 BCE) medicinal practices
- Greek (600 BCE) thought and the concept of natural laws, empirical approach
- Islamic scholars (400–1200 CE) employed scientific reasoning to study light, astronomy, geology, physics
- Western European thinkers (1500’s) continue development of experimental methods
- Experimentation & Hypothesis-testing
- gather as much information as possible about subject
- state a clear question
- form a hypothesis that is testable and able to be disproven
- design an experiment to test hypothesis (accept or refute)
- collect data (dependent variable) during a controlled experiment in which only a single factor is manipulated (independent variable)
- compile observations, analyze data via statistical tests for significance
Class Activities
Split class into groups of 3–4 and have the students:
- identify a question
- form hypothesis
- design experiment
- identify dependent and independent variables, control variables