1. Scientific Inquiry There will be a quiz tomorrow on the following 7 statements.

2. Scientific explanations are: 1.

3. 1. based on empirical observations or experiments: Observable, can collect data The appeal to authority as a valid explanation does not meet the requirements of science. Observations are based on sense experiences or on an extension of the senses through technology.

4. 2. made public: Scientists make presentations at scientific meetings or publish in professional journals, making knowledge public and available to other scientists or anyone that wants to investigate the information.

5. 3. tentative: Explanations can and do change. There are no scientific truths in an absolute sense.

6. 4. historical: Past explanations are the basis for contemporary explanations, and those, in turn are the basis for future explanations.

7. 5. probabilistic: The statistical view of nature is evident implicitly of explicitly when stating scientific predictions of phenomena or explaining the likelihood of events in actual situations.

8. 6. assume cause-effect relationships: Much of science is directed toward determining causal relationships and developing explanations for interactions and linkages between objects, organisms and events.

9. 7. limited: Scientific explanations sometimes are limited by technology, for example, the resolving power of microscopes and telescopes. New technologies can result in new fields of inquiry or extend current areas of study.

10. Science cannot answer all questions. Some questions are simply beyond the parameters of science. Many questions involving the: – meaning of life –ethics –theology are examples of questions that cannot be answered by science.

11. CUBE #1 How scientists do their work. You must write your own information down. Identify a question. (what number is on the bottom?)

12. Write down some observations or statements about the cube. Propose an answer to your questions using your observations. If __ then __ because. Could you be wrong? Could you be right?