AMI- Choosing a question Lec 3

Choosing a scientific question, Match scientific question with goals and scope

Choosing the type of question based on your goals: field of study, audience, what you want to contribute, what types of things you like to do

Choosing a scientific question, What are the short-term goals to consider when picking a scientific question

Short-term: good grade

Choosing a scientific question, What are the mid-term goals to consider when picking a scientific question

Mid-term: Get a job, apply for graduate or professional school

Choosing a scientific question, What are the long-term goals to consider when picking a scientific question

Long-term: What do you want to contribute to a field? How to change your or others' practice or thought?

Choosing a scientific question, What do your goals suggest about picking a scientific question

Field of study, Audience, What you want to contribute, What type of scientific approaches appeals to you

Choosing a scientific question, What are epistemological orientations

Different ways of viewing and engaging with the world; what phenomena are relevant and important

Choosing a scientific question, How does participation in cultural communities influence thinking

attention to context vs focal objects,

changing your mind, identifying changes, and role of humans in nature

Choosing a scientific question, Distinguish applied and basic scientific approaches

Problem-focused aka 'applied' vs. How does something work? ('basic science')

Choosing a scientific question, What is an applied scientific approach

Problem-focused

Choosing a scientific question, Give an example of an applied question about watermelon pollination

How many visits are necessary for optimal fruit set and development for watermelon in Central Valley?

Choosing a scientific question, Give an example of an applied question about hollow heart in watermelon

How many honey bee colonies per field are necessary to reduce hollow heart?

Choosing a scientific question, What is a basic science approach

How does something work?

Choosing a scientific question, Give an example of a basic science question about honey bees

Do honey bees rely on scent or visible signals in choosing flowers to visit?

Choosing a scientific question, What is a bridging basic and applied science approach

Bridging basic and applied science

Choosing a scientific question, Give an example of a question bridging basic and applied science

Does leaving strips of unplanted field in watermelon promote bee populations and pollination?

Choosing a scientific question, Pose questions using multiple approaches, assess tradeoffs

Revisit and reframe your question: pose basic and applied

Choosing a scientific question, What should you consider when choosing between questions

Feasibility (can I do this?), Falsifiability (can I get an answer?), other factors

Choosing a scientific question, What are sidenote examples of basic science yielding incredible breakthroughs

Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) isolated from a jellyfish; CRISPR-Cas9

Choosing a scientific question, How do you pick your question and find where your work fits

Do your homework! Read literature, talk to experts, investigate the system

Choosing a scientific question, What should you do if your goals differ from your group's

Nature of collaboration; you can carve out a niche/contribute your expertise; tradeoffs are inherent

Choosing a scientific question, What should you consider when posing the question/picking an approach

How are you asking your question? Scope; Is the answer interesting and useful? Costs/benefits with different approaches

Choosing a scientific question, How are you asking your question: SCOPE

Specific => General

Choosing a scientific question, Give an example of a specific scope question

How does lake level affect bass populations in Lake Berryessa?

Choosing a scientific question, Give an example of a general scope question

What practices maintain healthy fish populations in stocked fisheries in the US?

Choosing a scientific question, What should you do if you don't know what you want to do

Do something; Look for a study you like; Repeat what someone else did in a new system

Choosing a scientific question, What is said about feeling stupid in science

Be willing to hang with the dumb ideas that you will inevitably come up with, because the really great ideas stand on the shoulders of the dumb ones

Choosing a scientific question, What two traits do creative people in all fields tend to share

An ability to tolerate ambiguity (the messiness of complex problems) and a willingness to take risks and sometimes fail (Feist 1998, Martinsen 2011)

Choosing a scientific question, What is the danger of spending a lot of time refining what everyone already believes is important

It has the danger of making science conservative and unexciting

Choosing a scientific question, What does it mean to think outside the box regarding revolutions

Do rigorous, well-replicated science; Read the literature: You can benefit from previous work; But don't feel too constrained by what others think is important

Choosing a scientific question, Who is an example of thinking outside the box

Lynn Margulis

Choosing a scientific question, What was Lynn Margulis's theory and what happened to it

endosymbiosis was upheld and experimentally demonstrated in 1978

Choosing a scientific question, What awards did Lynn Margulis receive

Elected a member of the US National Academy of Sciences in 1983; Received the National Medal of Science in 1999

Choosing a scientific question, How to get inspiration for a scientific question

Talk to practitioners, Read a few papers, Observe: What patterns do you see? What mechanisms could explain them? What are the consequences of this pattern? How general is this pattern