Nature of Science By “nature” we mean the characteristics, the qualities, the features of scientific inquiry. You might think of a text book, of a person in a lab coat in a lab setting, an astronomer peering through a telescope, a marine biologist swimming with schools of fish, a chemist putting liquids together, Einstein scribbling equations – use these ideas in your posters!

Science is both a body of knowledge and a process of discovery! We already know a lot from people who have come before us, so we build on the knowledge that is already there. Science is also a process of discovery that allows us to link facts into understanding the natural world. Science is exciting! Science is a way of discovering what is the universe and how those things work today, in the past and how they are likely to work in the future.

Science is Useful! The information/knowledge generated by scientists is powerful and reliable. It can be used to develop new technologies, treat diseases, and deal with complicated problems. Science is ongoing. Science is continually refining and expanding our knowledge of the universe. As it does, it leads to new questions for future investigations. Science will never be finished!

Science is a global human effort! People all over the world participate in the process of science. Science can investigate all sorts of problems – When did the oldest rocks on Earth form? What causes Jupiter's red spot? How does pollution spread in water? Science can only give answers in terms of the natural world that we can investigate and observe. Observations may require special equipment such as microscopes, telescopes, chemicals and other specialized materials

Science is a particular way of understanding the natural world Science is a particular way of understanding the natural world. It extends the curiosity with which we are born. Science is based on the idea that our senses, and extensions of those senses through the use of instruments, can give us accurate information about the Universe. Science follows very specific "rules" and its results are always subject to testing and, if necessary, revision. Even with such constraints science does not leave out, and often benefits from, creativity and imagination (with a good bit of logic thrown in).

Science asks 3 BASIC QUESTIONS What's there? The astronaut picking up rocks on the moon, the nuclear physicist bombarding atoms, the marine biologist describing a newly discovered species, the paleontologist digging in promising strata, are all seeking to find out, "What's there?" How does it work?  A geologist comparing the effects of time on moon rocks to the effects of time on earth rocks, the nuclear physicist observing the behavior of particles, the marine biologist observing whales swimming, and the paleontologist studying the locomotion of an extinct dinosaur, "How does it work?" How did it come to be this way? Each of these scientists tries to reconstruct the histories of their objects of study. Whether these objects are rocks, elementary particles, marine organisms, or fossils, scientists are asking, "How did it come to be this way?"