What is Science?

The Goal of Science to investigate and understand the natural world To explain events in the natural world To use those explanations to make useful predictions

What is science An organized way of using evidence to learn about the natural world.

Thinking like a scientist If the car wont start, what steps would people take to figure out why? 1) observations = gathering information about events or processes in a careful orderly way – Usually involves using your senses 2) data = the information gathered from your observations 3) inference = a logical interpretation based on prior knowledge or experience

Explaining and Interpreting Evidence Scientists explain events in nature by interpreting evidence Hypothesis = a proposed scientific explanation for a set of observations A hypothesis must in a form that can be tested!

Science as a way of knowing Science discusses many facts, however don’t think biology is a set of truths that never change. Science is a way of knowing! Rather than unchanging knowledge, science is an ongoing process that involves asking questions, observing, making inferences, and testing hypothesis.

How Science Works

Designing an experiment 1) Asking a Question – Identify a problem to be solved 2) Forming a Hypothesis – Using prior knowledge or experience to answer the question

Designing an experiment 3) Setting up a controlled experiment Test your hypothesis with an experiment that only tests one variable at a time. All other variables must be kept the same

Variables Manipulated/Independent Variable = The variable that is purposely changed Responding/Dependent Variable = The variable that is observed – What you are testing for or looking to see happen

How a Theory Develops When many experiments/investigations build up evidence, a hypothesis can become so well supported that we call it a theory. Theory = a well tested explanation that unifies a broad range of observations.