Scientific Methods and The Nature of Scientific Research
           traditional: observation -> Hypothesis -> prediction -> testing

• delving deeper:
• observation vs experiments,
• hypothesis vs. theory vs law,
• prediction and testing
 
• types of reasoning:
•    inductive: Individual observation ->  general conclusion
• deductive: the big picture (theory) ->  conclusion / prediction about individual observation

• important aspect of science: (Karl Popper) Theories can never be positively proven to be true.

 Directions: In your lab groups split into partners of 2 or 3 students and together do PART A and PART B.  After you work out the answers, you'll be asked to report your results.  Copy the fill- ins in your spiral.  At home, copy the entire page on the flash drive.
 

Phrases about Science for Matching:  March each cartoon with one of the following phrases by   putting a LETTER in each blank  _____Inductive reasoning   _____deductive reasoning  _____ Ever-changing nature of scientific knowledge  _____Prediction & testing  _____Conflict of interest  _____Review of scientific results by colleagues  _____Science is a cumulative enterprise

    Match each QUOTE with the phrase that BEST expresses an aspect of science that the scientist is talking about in his or her quote.

    1. Newton's passage from a falling apple to a falling moon was an act of the prepared imagination.  John Tyndall (1820-1893) Irish physicist.
 

    2.  The joy of insight is a sense of involvement and awe, the elated state of mind that you achieve when you have grasped some essential point; it is akin to what you feel on top of a mountain after a hard climb or when you head a great work of music.  Victor Weisskopf (b.1908) Austrian-American physicist

    3.  Besides learning to see, there is another art to be learned - not to see what is not.  Maria Mitchell (1818-1889) US Astronomer

    4.  No, it's a great life.  It's harder tan I ever imagined, in the sense that you have to get used to wasting an enormous amount of time.  You have to get the discipline of sitting at your desk fooling around with ideas than almost never work and living for the rare moment when an idea does work.  Steven Weinberg (b 1933) US physicist.

    5.  Ask questions.  Don't be afraid to appear stupid.  The stupid questions are usually the best and the hardest to answer.  They force the speaker to think about the basic problem.  Paul Ehrenfest   (1880-1933) Austrian physicist

    6.  The one universal ever-operating law throughout has been the law of change.  Nature never stands still and never duplicates herself.  Life is always in the process of becoming something else.  Laurence M. Gould (b. 1896-1995)

    7.  No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment may at any time prove me wrong.  Albert Einstein (1879-1955)  Swiss-American physicist
 

PHRASES ABOUT SCIENCE FOR MATCHING:
Match each quote above with one of the following phrases by putting a NUMBER in each blank

_____Curiosity & self-discovery tend to motivate scientists

_____Dedicated & persistent research yields benefits

_____Scientists are attracted by the wonder, awe, & joy found in their research

_____Inspiration emerges from a well-enformed mind

_____Theories cannot be verified, but they can be falsified

_____Self-deception can color an observation

_____Knowledge is ever-changing