Science Department Philosophy

Our students will progressively develop scientific skills, knowledge, and conceptual understanding in order to competently evaluate decisions based on numerical and descriptive data and scientific reasoning.

Through the art of scientific practice, our students will find continued interest, meaning, and delight in the exploration of our physical world.

Our graduates will be sufficiently prepared to be successful in science courses at the university level.

ASFG students develop conceptual models in order to improve the quality of their predictions and basic understanding of the physical world. Through a combination of inductive and deductive reasoning, experimentation, observation, analysis, creative questioning, and inspired guesswork they refine their ideas of how nature behaves. Students are motivated by both the practical and the aesthetic rewards of their investigations. Thus they often look for connections to other aspects of human life, be they social, commercial, political, ecological, or other.

We allow our students to explore the world as real scientists by providing sufficient materials, facilities, and time for experimental work. When working with concepts that are difficult to justify through student experimentation in the lab, we present students with appropriate alternate sources of evidence to support the conceptual understandings we are trying to build. The emphasis is on justifying and testing ideas with observable, measurable evidence, and certainly not on the rote memorization of facts. We do this in an environment that is safe, engaging, accessible, and challenging to the wide variety of students we serve.