Science is about asking questions
Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist,
and then we beat it out of them.
A few trickle through with their wonder and enthusiasm intact.
- Carl Sagan
Isidore Rabi, winner of a Nobel Prize for physics, was once asked why he became a scientist.
He replied: "My mother made me a scientist without ever knowing it.
Every other child would come back from school and be asked, 'What did you learn today?' But my mother used to say, 'Izzy, did you ask a good question today?' That made the difference. Asking good questions made me into a scientist."
We should be explicitly encouraging our students to ask questions.
Science is both a body of knowledge that represents current understanding of natural systems and the process whereby that body of knowledge has been established and is being continually extended, refined, and revised. Both elements are essential: one cannot make progress in science without an understanding of both. Likewise, in learning science one must come to understand both the body of knowledge and the process by which this knowledge is established, extended, refined, and revised.
Elements:
Science is the study of the natural world ( vs engineering which is about solving human needs)
Science aims to explain and understand
Science creates models that enable us to predict what will happen
Science is based on evidence: The knowledge that is built by science is always open to question and revision. No scientific idea is ever once-and-for-all "proved." Why not? Well, science is constantly seeking new evidence, which could reveal problems with our current understandings. Ideas that we fully accept today may be rejected or modified in light of new evidence discovered tomorrow
Science works with testable ideas
Only testable ideas are within the purview of science. For an idea to be testable, it must logically generate specific expectations — in other words, a set of observations that we could expect to make if the idea were true and a set of observations that would be inconsistent with the idea and lead you to believe that it is not true.
Science is embedded in the scientific community
Scientific ideas lead to ongoing research
Examples of scientific questions:
What is the average height of a student in my class?
What is the high and low temperatures today?
How is heredity determined?
Examples of not scientific questions:
What is the best flavor of ice cream?
I. Purpose: Why is the lab or study being performed? Often a study is done because of a chance observation- see Galileo and the pendulum( above)
II. Hypothesis- What you think will happen?
III. Variables: List:
Independent or manipulated variables (ones you’re changing)
Dependent/responding variables (ones you’re measuring)
Constants (what is kept the same)
IV. MATERIALS: List all materials used ( can include software)
V. PROCEDURE: List and number each of the steps in the order you did them. Scientific studies must be reproducible, so accurate descriptions of materials and methods are important.
VI. DATA TABLES & GRAPHS: Data Tables and/or Graphs may be attached to the back of your lab report.
All Data Tables and/or Graphs must have a Title.
Data tables should be neat, with units and values marked.
VII. CONCLUSION:
The conclusion will include a summary of your data with the exact numbers and will show that the hypothesis is supported or not supported.
For example, in the present pandemic, many people who are hospitalized and/or die are found to be covid positive, although their symptoms and cause of death are not primarily covid-related. How should their morbidities be classified?
Science is about observing:
My father taught me to notice things. One day, I was playing with an “express wagon,” a little wagon with a railing around it. It had a ball in it, and when I pulled the wagon, I noticed something about the way the ball moved. I went to my father and said, “Say, Pop, I noticed something. When I pull the wagon, the ball rolls to the back of the wagon. And when I’m pulling it along and I suddenly stop, the ball rolls to the front of the wagon. Why is that?” “That, nobody knows,” he said. “The general principle is that things which are moving tend to keep on moving, and things which are standing still tend to stand still, unless you push them hard. This tendency is called ‘inertia,’ but nobody knows why it’s true.” Now, that’s a deep understanding. He didn’t just give me the name. He went on to say, “If you look from the side, you’ll see that it’s the back of the wagon that you’re pulling against the ball, and the ball stands still. As a matter of fact, from the friction it starts to move forward a little bit in relation to the ground. It doesn’t move back.” I ran back to the little wagon and set the ball up again and pulled the wagon. Looking sideways, I saw that indeed he was right. Relative to the sidewalk, it moved forward a little bit. That’s the way I was educated by my father, with those kinds of examples and discussions: no pressure—just lovely, interesting discussions. “
Richard Feynman(1918–1988) Theoretical physicist