Botkin & Keller Environmental Science 5/e Chapter 2 Science as a Way of Knowing

Botkin & Keller Environmental Science 5/e Science as Process Science is a process of discovery –Scientific ideas change –Sometimes a science undergoes a fundamental revolution of ideas

Botkin & Keller Environmental Science 5/e Science as Process The criterion by which we decide whether a statement is in the realm of science: Whether it is possible, at least in principle, to disprove the statement.

Botkin & Keller Environmental Science 5/e Disprovability If you can think of a test that could disprove a statement, then that statement can be said to be scientific. If you can’t think if a test, then the statement is said to be nonscientific.

Botkin & Keller Environmental Science 5/e © 2008 John Wiley and Sons Publishers

Botkin & Keller Environmental Science 5/e Science as Process Scientific Method: Actually a set of methods which are the systematic methods by which scientists investigate natural phenomena

Botkin & Keller Environmental Science 5/e © 2008 John Wiley and Sons Publishers

Botkin & Keller Environmental Science 5/e Assumptions of Science Events in the natural world follow patterns that can be understood through careful observation and scientific analysis. These basic patterns and rules that describe them are the same through the universe Science is based on a type of reasoning known as induction Generalizations can be subjected to tests that may disprove them. Although new evidence can disprove existing theories, science can never provide absolute proof of the truth of its theories.

Botkin & Keller Environmental Science 5/e The Nature of Scientific Proof Deductive reasoning: –Drawing a conclusion form initial definitions and assumptions by means of logical reasoning. Inductive reasoning: –Drawing a conclusion from a limited set of specific observations.

Botkin & Keller Environmental Science 5/e Measurements and Uncertainty Experimental errors: –Measurement uncertainties and other errors that occur in experiments. Accuracy: –The extent to which a measurement agrees with the accepted value Precision: –The degree of exactness with which a quantity is measured-how close repeated measurements are to each other

Botkin & Keller Environmental Science 5/e Observations, Facts, Inferences, and Hypotheses Observations: –The basis of science, may be made through any of the five senses or by instruments that measure beyond what we can see. Inference: –A generalization that arises from a set of observations. Fact: –When what is observed about a particular thing is agreed on by all or almost all.

Botkin & Keller Environmental Science 5/e Observations, Facts, Inferences, and Hypotheses Hypothesis: –An explanation set forth in a manner that can be tested and is capable of being disproved. Dependent variable: –A variable taken as the outcome of one or more variables—results from the independent variable Independent variable: –The variable that is manipulated by the investigator; affects the dependent variable.

Botkin & Keller Environmental Science 5/e © 2008 John Wiley and Sons Publishers

Botkin & Keller Environmental Science 5/e Observations, Facts, Inferences, and Hypotheses Model: –A deliberately simplified explanation of complex phenomena. –Models are often physical Mathematical Pictorial or Computer-simulated

Botkin & Keller Environmental Science 5/e © 2008 John Wiley and Sons Publishers

Botkin & Keller Environmental Science 5/e Observations, Facts, Inferences, and Hypotheses Theories: –Models that offer broad, fundamental explanations of many observations

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Botkin & Keller Environmental Science 5/e Science, Pseudoscience, and Frontier Science Pseudoscience: –Some ideas presented as scientific are in fact not scientific, because they are untestable, lack empirical support, or are based on faulty reasoning or poor scientific methodology

Botkin & Keller Environmental Science 5/e © 2008 John Wiley and Sons Publishers