Investigating Scientifically Science is more than just knowing and understanding concepts. The skills of scientific inquiry are at the heart of all that you will do in this subject.

How Scientists Work On what basis should you ‘accept’ the scientific concepts you have or will be taught? The answer lies with how scientists arrived at these conclusions in the first place.

Observations discoveries observing The process of is fundamental to scientific activities. Science is full of discoveries which have been made because someone has been prepared to follow up an observation considered irrelevant by someone else.

microscopes, rulers, thermometers and data loggers Observations By using our senses we can make observations about our surroundings. Scientific instruments such as microscopes, rulers, thermometers and data loggers are a common way to collect observations.

Quantitative Observations Observations that can be measured numerically

Qualitative Observations Descriptive observations that cannot be given a numerical value.

Give examples of qualitative and quantitative observations for this organism. Scale Bar=5cm

Inferences differently Observations can be interpreted by people, depending on their experiences and background. Inferences are possible explanations for an observation.

Distinguishing Observations from Inferences Observations are based on your senses and measuring instruments. Inferences are only educated guesses to explain your observations. The best inferences include all available evidence and can be tested by experiments.

Decide whether these statements are observations or inferences. Water boils at 100 0 C 100 0 C is the boiling point for water. Many Bacteria do not grow near some moulds. These moulds could be developed into drugs to cure bacterial infections.

Questions Observations often lead to questions. In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming made the chance observation that bacteria were not growing near a mould on one of his laboratory nutrient dishes. By investigating this question penicillin was discovered.

Hypotheses An inference or question can be formulated into a hypothesis This is a tentative answer or educated guess to a question or problem. A hypothesis is based on evidence and careful observations.

Carrying Out an Investigation Hypotheses may be tested by making systematic observations, building models and conducting laboratory and field experiments.

Carrying Out an Investigation Whatever method is chosen to test a hypothesis, it must be described in enough detail for others to be able to repeat it. If others cannot repeat the experiment and obtain the same results, the test is not considered reliable.

Carrying Out an Investigation Doing one test is not sufficient to support or reject a hypothesis. It may be some unforseen factor or other inaccuracies such as measurement errors may affect one particular result.

Carrying Out an Investigation The same test is normally carried out a number of times under the same conditions at different times. Increasing the sample size is another way to improve reliability of results.

Scientific Way of Investigating Observations Inference Question Prediction Hypothesis Prior Knowledge and experiences

Scientific Theory and Principle When the results of a scientific investigation repeatedly support a hypothesis, it may become a theory or principle and the hypothesis is accepted as scientific truth.