The Science of Biology Chapter 1 Biology Ms. Haut.
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Transcript of The Science of Biology Chapter 1 Biology Ms. Haut.
What is Science?
Science aims to understand the natural world through observation and reasoning.
Science begins with observations, therefore, much of science is purely descriptive.
Science uses both deductive and inductive reasoning.
What is Science?
Deductive reasoning uses general principles to make specific predictions.– Example: All turtles have shells. The animal I
have captured is a turtle. I conclude that the animal in my bag has a shell.
Inductive reasoning uses specific observations to develop general conclusions.– Example: All sheep that I've seen are white
Therefore, all sheep must be white
Thinking like a Scientist
• Scientists use a systematic approach to gain understanding of the natural world.– Observation– Question– Hypothesis formation– Prediction– Experimentation– Data Collection– Conclusion
The Scientific Method
• Observations are gathered through your senses
• A scientist notices something in their natural world
• Questions are asked
The Scientific Method
• A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for an observation.– Uses prior knowledge– Must be testable– Allows for predictions
to be made– Typically written in the
“if…, then…” format
The Scientific Method
• The controlled experiment– tests the hypothesis– must be carefully designed to test only one
variable at a time– consists of a test experiment (experimental
group) and a control experiment (control group)
The Scientific Method
• The controlled experiment– An experimenter changes one factor and
observes or measures what happens.– The experimenter makes a special effort to
keep other factors constant so that they will not effect the outcome.
– Those factors are called control variables (constants).
What is the Purpose of a Control?
• Controls are NOT being tested
• Controls are used for COMPARISON, so you can see the effect of the variable
Other Variables
• The factor that is changed is known as the independent variable (manipulated variable)
• The factor that is measured or observed is called the dependent variable (responding variable)
The Scientific Method
• Data Collection
– Results of the experiment• Quantitative data are expressed as numbers,
obtained by counting or measuring.• Qualitative data are descriptive and involve
characteristics that can’t easily be measured.