What is Science?

Observing Using one or more of your senses to gather information. –Senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.

Observations Quantitative – deal with a number, or amount. (quantity) Qualitative – deal with descriptions that cannot be expressed in numbers.

Inferring When you explain or interpret the things you observe. Making an inference. What inferences do you make?

Predicting Making a forecast of what will happen in the future based on past experience or evidence. Who do you predict to win the Super Bowl?

Classifying The process of grouping together items that are alike in some way. How do you classify things?

Making Models Creating representations of complex objects or processes. Are models important in education? Why? Do you have any models?

Science is… A way of learning about the natural world.

Dinosaur tracks are common occurrences in the southern and eastern U.S. Here is a section of tracks that were recently uncovered. Can you answer the following questions?

What is the size and nature of the organisms? Were the tracks made at the same time? How many animals were involved? Can you reconstruct the events that occurred?

In what direction did the animals move? Did they change speed or direction? Was the soil moist or dry? In what type of rock were the prints made?

The following summer some more digging revealed more of the track. What additional information have you gained that allows you to refine your answers?

Were the tracks made at the same time? How many animals were involved? Can you reconstruct the events that occurred? In what direction did the animals move? Did they change speed or direction?

In the final summer of the excavation one last part of the footprint trail was uncovered. Does this section provide additional information to refine your hypothesis?

So what happened? What part of your hypothesis is observation? What part is inference? How can we classify these two organisms?

This is how science is done.

Scientific Inquiry Diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world. Proposing explanations based on the evidence they gather.

Hypothesis A possible answer to your scientific question. A hypothesis is able to be tested. Ex. Why isn’t my ipod working?

Experiment Testing your hypothesis. Variables – factors that can change in an experiment. Ex. Testing crickets chirping in different temperatures – all crickets must be the same kind, same size container you keep crickets in, type of thermometer.

Independent variable (manipulated variable) – factor of the experiment that is purposely changed. –In cricket experiment, the air temperature is the independent variable. Dependent Variable (responding variable) – factor that changes because of the independent variable. -number of chirps the cricket makes, different number depending on the temperature.

Controlled Experiment An experiment in which only one variable is manipulated at a time. Ex. Cricket experiment: only the temperature is manipulated. Why is this important?

Collecting and Interpreting Data Data – create tables. –An organized way to collect and record your observations. Results – create graphs. –Helps you interpret data. –See patterns, the big picture.

Conclusions Summary of what you have learned from an experiment. Questions to Ask? -Did I collect enough data? -What happened? -Were there any errors?

Communicating Sharing ideas and experimental findings.

Scientific Theories and Laws Well-tested explanation for a wide range of observations or experimental results. Ex. Atomic theory

Scientific Laws Statement that describes what scientists expect to happen every time under a particular set of conditions. A rule of Nature