Nature of Science - Lecture

Defining Science

  • Science is a process and a way of understanding natural processes

  • Truth in science doesn’t exist because all scientific claims are falsifiable with new evidence

    • scientific faith: based off prior experience, universal consent, natural and artificial inference, and credible authority

    • ex of scientific knowledge: earth’s continental and oceanic plates move throughout a process known as plate tectonics

    • ex of scientific faith: we have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow

  • How can we know anything? - Do we know or merely have faith?

  • Scientific knowledge is based off of empirical evidence = observable

    • no evidence = opinion

  • Science is durable, but subject to change and error

  • Ex: we believed continents were stagnant and didn’t move - changed with new evidence and information

Observations

  • Can either be qualitative or quantitative

  • Based on 5 senses: sight, smell, sound, taste, touch

  • Can also include measurements: mass, volume, weight, height, length, and density

  • Levels of observations:

    • everyday: simple and non-specific, observations are more irrelevant (color, size, shape)

    • transitional: more relevant (scientific observations than irrelevant)

    • scientific: observing scientifically relevant features and ignoring irrelevant features using a systemic framework that is scientifically sound (scientific method)

Interpretations

  • Attempting to figure out what’s being observed = provides an explanation

  • Questions to ask:

    • what am I looking at?

    • what was here before?

    • how something forms or occurs?

    • how old is something?

Generalized Scientific Method

  • No one-glove-fits-all method

  • Observations: both qualitative and quantitative

  • Questions: research question

  • Hypothesis: observable explanation that attempts to answer research question

  • Prediction: test to determine if hypothesis is correct

  • Methods: tools and procedures for how data will be collected and analyzed, justifies testing and rationale for why what’s being done is done

  • Testing/Data Collection: gathering and collecting data (experiments, research, new observations)

  • Discussion: does the data or results support or refute hypothesis, is the research inconclusive? What errors were made? Alter, expand, refine research

Hypothesis vs Prediction vs Theory vs Law

  • Hypothesis: an observable explanation to a question that is testable

    • ex: flashlight wasn’t turning on because the batteries were dead

  • Prediction: an acclaimable test to determine the validity of a hypothesis

    • ex: if we change the batteries, the flashlight will turn on

  • Theory: a widely accepted and tested explanation of a cause and affect relationship

    • ex: theory of plate tectonics

  • Law: a statement based on repeated explanational observations

    • ex: conservation of energy