Housekeeping

1. Housekeeping • My name is Candice • Water is not electronegative • Atoms aren’t polar • Salt is not charged (seems to be a problem with my explainantion) • Avoid making assumptions • “like dissolves like” • Reactions Interactions • http://youtu.be/cIJt75IovfA • For section 29 review the pepper experiment from last week.

2. Verbal Vomiting Jack and Jill went up the hill To fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down And broke his crown, And Jill came running after. Jack and his sister Jill went for a walk one day and they decided to go up the hill. The found a pail behind a tree at the bottom and skipped with it hand in hand to the top. They thought they were going to get Jello but only found water. Then Jill tripped her brother ‘cause she really wanted Jello, but then jack fell down and busted some teeth and she felt really bad so she went running to save him.

3. Future regrets • At the end of every semester, some students ask: “is there anything I can do to raise my grade” • The answer is always: Go back in time and be more committed, go to office hours, earn higher scores • You are at that time now. Grab it before it goes by

4. How? Why? Lab 2: Problem solving • or why Chymistry outlasted Magick* • *in most places

5. Goals for today • Observe yourself in action: you are already a practitioner of scientific approaches • Observe yourself in action: want to get better at anything? Practice & analyze • Observe others in action: another grand way to improve

6. Futures • Seen CSI? House? Numbers? Myth busters? • Wonder about global warming? Best ways to create jobs? • Have views about anything at all? • Want to be the one that solves problems? Science isn’t facts. Facts fuel science. What can you do with information?

7. Asking questions • It’s how we verify important things about the world • Good experimentation: http://youtu.be/DzZqje04vLE • Poor experimentation: http://youtu.be/8-1F-CokXNU

8. Definitions • “Science is the human endeavor to achieve a better understanding of the world by observation, comparison, experiment, analysis, synthesis, and conceptualization” • “Science is a body of facts (‘knowledge’) and the concepts that permit explaining these facts.” • Both from Ernst Mayr, What makes biology unique p. 140 (Kindle version)

9. You already do this • You stumble out of your room at 4 a.m. and turn on a lamp • Nothing happens • Now what? Curse the darkness? • Notes to self: What elements are you employing? What’s your process?* *Your notes today will be your material for a graded exercise at day’s end Take a blank sheet of paper out to start

10. Gonna Science you up • “The light’s not turning on!” = observation • ‘Possible explanations’ = hypothesis/models • “If I ______, it should _____” = prediction • Execution of prediction = test • “Gotta catch ‘em all”: goal is to whittle away possibilities until only one is left standing • If only looking at one, challenge it to fail

11. Read, Observe, Consider: Become curious think about causality (hypothesis) Create/Embrace functional explanation (model) Predict: IF (model true) THEN after X, Y will result Execute test(s): Experiment! Do results make sense? Gain confidence Reject/modify model Repeat

12. Ways of knowing • Empirical--you saw it, touched it, etc. • Reasoned argument from documented/identified assumptions & previous knowledge • Repeatedly established by others that you ‘trust’ • ‘Intuition’ arises from experience & mental participation • Never: assertions by authority regardless of the nature (or volume) of that authority. No, really--never!

13. Stuff you can figure out:Thinking with your nose

14. Give each paper towel a test--with your nose • What do you notice? (observe) • What does the fact of smelling tell you… • about what your body does? (model) • about involvement of molecules? (model) • What does smelling different things tell you? (model)

15. C10H14O • The formula for both smells. • How can you make sense of this information and the observations of your nose? • How can you model this information?

16. This is the structural drawing for both smells. What can you conclude? • See ‘Duo_Comparator’ in Bio181L_Go

17. PatternMaster • A quest for the rules that order a system

18. Rule Quest • Given 1-step clockwise*, it could be... • Perimeter to top inner color • Top inner color to lower left color • Lower right color to lower left color *NEIGHBOR definitions are clockwise, counterclockwise

19. Take a look Bio181L_Go => PatternMaster for Fun Enter a random # Select ‘Demo’

20. Make observations • Walk around the room. Look at everybody else’s screen • Get a ‘feel’ for what’s standard. This is practice for solving medium & hard puzzles: Figuring out the ‘background’ so you can detect the ‘foreground’--the hints that something is noteworthy • Return to your prep notes for end-of-class assignment: • observe/record your process, approaches, successes

22. Polya • Lab Manual, Appendix G • George Polya enumerated a general strategy based on teaching & contemplation for many years • It’s not rules, it’s ideas

23. P’Master, written part • Description clearly explains underlying rule • supplemented with examples • sufficient to guide someone who doesn’t know the game • If proposed solution is wrong or incomprehensible, points taken OFF & max possible score 45 no matter what • Easy => 95; Medium => 100; Hard => 105 (if perfect write-up) • 90, 95, 100 for Honors

24. Ordering the world • What’s with these liquids?

25. Two sets of liquids • “Actors” [A & B] and “Indicators” (numbered) • These are yours to investigate. How much can you figure out? • What experiments will you perform to gain insight? • As you make observations, can you model the world? • Suggestion: finding an organized way to record your data is probably a Good Idea ;)

26. What’s a rubric? • It’s a treasure map--to POINTS.

27. Learning from yourself

28. Five tips from you to you • Strategies, approaches, insights you observed, employed, discovered today • For each • state the rule, approach, etc. • explain the context in which it arose • state a circumstance where it could apply in your future • This is 25% of next week’s quiz grade, handed in today

29. Quantum Mine • Modeling information

30. Rules of the Mine or... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Box_(game)

31. Solve one as a group • No mouse clicking until the group understands, supports the proposal • Hypothesis proposer ≠ prediction maker ≠ result analyzer • This is a bonus problem; it can earn up to 4 points added to your PMaster score

32. Homework • Quantum Mine: Bonus credit • Pattern Master: Solution & (written) description • Assessor: the Logic of Disproof • Next week: write-up of today’s work (see rubric)

33. One path • Visit every group; start with a focus on ‘indicator A’ • Work with them to establish a graphic • See if they can get to (or you can guide them to) a hypothesis that the two major color changes are ‘opposite’ and the prediction that the relevant substances will undo each other

34. Leftovers

35. Firm Foundations • What you know

36. Periodic patterns See also lab manual p. 0-1

37. Ordering the unknown • In PatternMaster, you conjecture from a ‘standing start’, then test resulting hypotheses • Next exercise, you’ll investigate building of knowledge, = creation of simplifying view from initially disparate information • Or: Indicator 1-6; Substance A & B

38. science summarized Source: http://xkcd.com/242/

39. Again with the science http://static.neatorama.com/images/2008-12/mad-scientist-mad-engineers.jpg

41. Albert Einstein Sez... “The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking”

42. Consider...How do you know: • The world isn’t flat? • What trees are made of? • Earth circles the sun? • Where you were born?

43. Good observations • Experimentation inevitably involves observation. Are you a skilled observer? • Please remain silent so as not to interfere with others’ observations

44. Interlude • Doing science vs. gathering data

45. One more for the ‘experts’ • Some of your students telling you they’re too smart/too cool/too advanced? • http://atheism.about.com/od/logicalflawsinreasoning/a/unskilled.htm • tinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/ntzh6e

46. Review: Ways of knowing • Empirical--you saw it, touched it, etc. • Reasoned argument from documented/identified assumptions & previous knowledge • Repeatedly established by others • ‘Intuition’ arises from long investment in 1 + 2 + 3 • Never: assertions by authority regardless of the nature (or volume) of that authority

47. Taking it for a ride Homepage (=> Software => QMine => Fun) A word on course (& University) honor code Anything with just your name on it represents your work alone Assessor: Discuss before, after, e-mail the Director during, e-mail me, come to office hours... Software assignments: Practice & learn with a friend in ‘for fun’ mode; do your homework on your own

48. E K 4 7 Given: Each card has a letter on one side, number on the other Hypothesis: “If a card has a vowel on one side then it has an even number on the other.” Testing a hypothesis Which cards should we flip to test the hypothesis as thoroughly as possible without wasting time/energy? Justify. Double-check: What results could you get for each of your proposed experiments? Which results would (dis)prove something?