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What Science Is

What Science Is. My early perspective of science…. What Science Is. Has your perspective of Science changed?. What Science Is. Science is the process of asking and answering questions about the physical universe. What Science Is.

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What Science Is

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  1. What Science Is • My early perspective of science…

  2. What Science Is • Has your perspective of Science changed?

  3. What Science Is • Science is the process of asking and answering questions about the physical universe

  4. What Science Is • Science is the process of asking and answering questions about the physical universe • Can science answer questions for everything?

  5. What Science Is • Science is the process of asking and answering questions about the physical universe • Can science answer questions for everything? No….remember the Meringue pie!

  6. What Science Is • Which of the following hypothesis could science answer? • Psychics are able to talk to the afterlife • The increased use of pesticides has caused a decrease in human fertility • A 1000-calorie a day diet will increase human longevity • Dinosaurs became extinct because of supernatural powers

  7. What Science Is • Science must be testable • Science must be falsifiable

  8. Hypothetico-Deductive • How do scientist go about answering questions? • Edward Jenner (1798) • Vaccine for small pox • Ethical questions?

  9. Scientific Method: Deductive Reasoning

  10. Exploratory Science: Inductive Reasoning • Analogous to a web • Specific phenomena occur on the periphery • Moving towards center becomes more general • In center are the Laws of Nature

  11. What is common in both?

  12. Why look for Patterns? • Nature behaves mostly in patterns • Helps us generalize complex behaviors

  13. Why look for Patterns?

  14. Why look for Patterns? • Why was it built? • Who built it? • What does it have to do with science?

  15. Why look for Patterns? • Nature behaves mostly in patterns • Helps us generalize complex behaviors • Patterns can be summarized in mathematical forms (models) • Mathematics allows predictability

  16. Why look for Patterns? Distance traveled is proportional to the square of the time traveled. d = k x t2

  17. Important Points of the Method • Scientific experiments must be reproducible….why?

  18. Important Points of the Method • Scientific experiments must be reproducible….why? • Experiments must be designed to match the hypothesis…falsifiable?

  19. Important Points of the Method • Scientific experiments must be reproducible….why? • Experiments must be designed to match the hypothesis…falsifiable? • Ideally experiments should be designed so that only one possible variable is changed (independent variable) • Lack of fertilizer is causing my lawn to turn yellow

  20. Important Points of the Method • Scientific experiments must be reproducible….why? • Experiments must be designed to match the hypothesis…falsifiable? • Ideally experiments should be designed so that only one possible variable is changed (independent variable) • Ideally, experimental results should be compared against a control…fertilizer?

  21. Important Points of the Method • Scientific experiments must be reproducible….why? • Scientists can be biased but their results cannot be….why?

  22. Unbiased Results • The results of science must defy any prejudices of the scientist • What do you notice that’s missing from this equation?

  23. Unbiased Results • Johannes Kepler • Sun was the center • Planets move in elliptical orbits

  24. Important Points of the Method • Scientists can be biased but their results cannot be….why? • Scientific experiments must be reproducible….why? • The Method is not rigid…routes of science • The Method is continuous (no end)

  25. The Big Question • Does Science ever provide a final answer of truth?

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