Title: Science 8
Author: Dave McPhee

The Scientific Method and Scientific Skills

Considering this is a science class, I think that is very important for us to ask an important question: 

WHAT IS SCIENCE?

This can be a very complicated question, but we are going to give a very simple answer at first, and dig deeper later on.

So, what is science? 
Science is a way of understanding the world around us. 
Science is a way of thinking. 
Science is using observations and evidence to help us form our ideas. 
In order for an idea to considered science it must be verifiable with an experiment. 
No idea (no matter how good) can be considered science without data to back it up.

What makes science so wonderful is that is self-correcting. Wrong or incomplete ideas eventually fall apart under continued testing and experimentation. There are many examples of scientific ideas that have been proven incorrect (or incomplete) over time, a few examples are:

•	The four element theory
•	Early atomic models
•	Miasma Theory
•	Preformationism
•	Caloric Theory
•	Parts of Dalton’s atomic theory
•	Geocentric Universe/Solar system
•	Newtonian Mechanics

1. All of the knowledge about the world around us that scientists have gathered for thousands of years.
2. A process for gathering that knowledge, called the scientific method.

*When scientists develop or try to develop a new Theory they must follow a process known as the Scientific Method. 
*Only knowledge that has been found using the scientific method can become part of science.
*The scientific method is used to help prevent incorrect theories from developing.

The Scientific Method

The scientific method involves the following steps:
	1. Asking a Question about the world around us. For example “Is the Earth flat?”
2. Making a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a possible explanation or answer to the question. “I think that the Earth is flat”
	3. Making predictions about the future using the hypothesis. “If the Earth is flat it must have an edge”
4. Design and perform controlled experiments to test the predictions. “I will sail my boat to the edge of the world, look over the edge and throw a tomato into the abyss” 
5. Make observations and collect data. “I have sailed my boat for weeks and months, and have still not reached an edge” and “ After a very long time of sailing and walking and sailing, all in a straight line, I have returned to the same spot.”	
6. Analyze the data from your experiment. “It seems that perhaps the Earth has no edges”  
7. Draw Conclusions. “If there are no edges the Earth cannot be flat” Do your observations support the hypothesis?  Repeat steps 2-7 until you have a hypothesis that works.

*Once experiments and observations can support the hypothesis it is called a Theory. 
*The theory can now be tested by anyone, anywhere and the results should be the same. 
*As soon as some new observation is made that the theory does not explain, a new hypothesis should be made.

All scientists must make use of certain skills in order to do science. Some of those skills are: observing, predicting, classifying, measuring, estimating, using models, making hypotheses, doing experiments. 

We make use of most of these skills nearly every day. We estimate the distance we need to walk “ ...about 10 blocks.”  or peoples heights “ she’s 5 foot 10.”. We classify things also: Boys and Girls, juniors and seniors, teachers and students, fruits and vegetables, rock and rap. We make measurements when we weigh ourselves or check our shoe size. We continuously make observations: “ That smells funny” or  “ It’s cold outside”.  We use models very often. Any time you use a map or draw a diagram you are modeling. All of the science skills are used in this way.

Questions:

1. Why is the fact that an experiment can be repeated so important?
2. I observe a man walking with an umbrella. I observe that it is raining. I conclude that when this man opened his umbrella it began to rain. I make a hypothesis that whenever anyone opens an umbrella it rains. Explain how we can use the scientific method to test my hypothesis.  
3. I observe that when more people are wearing sweaters it is colder outside. I hypothesize that as people put on sweaters it causes the Earth to cool. I make very detailed measurements of the number of people in sweaters and the temperature by getting a team of scientists to sit on busy corners in cities all over the world and count the number of people wearing sweaters and measure the temperature every day for one year. I collect all of the data and I analyze it. The measurements seem to confirm my hypothesis! The more people in sweaters, the lower the temperature. I am very excited as I predict that I can solve Global Warming and Climate Change by getting more and more people to put on sweaters! Explain the flaw in my reasoning.
4. Is science knowledge?
5. Is science a process?