Biology What will we cover?  Scientific Method and Inquiry  Ecology  Cells  Genetics  Evolution  Kingdoms  Plants  Animals  Human Body

Let’s begin! The Nature of Science (NOS) The Nature of Science (NOS)

Topics Covered 1. What is Science? 2. The Scientific Method

What is Science? Definition: Definition: –a system of knowledge concerned with understanding the physical world. Science comes from the Latin “to know”. Science comes from the Latin “to know”.

Science must be: 1. Testable 2. Falsifiable 3. Repeatable

Science must not be: Science must not be: influenced by culture, politics, religion, gender, etc influenced by culture, politics, religion, gender, etc

Purpose of Science is to know our physical existence only. is to know our physical existence only.

Scientific Method 1. Observation 2. Ask a Question 2. Do Background Research 3. Construct a Hypothesis 4. Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment (controlled, independent, dependent variables) 5. Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion (support or refute your hypothesis???) 6. Communicate Your Results

Ask a Question How, What, When, Who, Which, Why, or Where? How, What, When, Who, Which, Why, or Where? Answer must be measurable! Answer must be measurable!

Do Background Research What’s been done? What’s been done? Use resources: Use resources: –a. library –B. internet

Construct a Hypothesis A hypothesis is an educated guess about how things work: "If _____[I do this] _____, then _____[this]_____ will happen.“ Hypothesis Hypothesis easily measure easily measure should be constructed in a way to help you answer your original question. should be constructed in a way to help you answer your original question.

Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment Experiments test: Experiments test: whether or not your hypothesis is supported or not supported. whether or not your hypothesis is supported or not supported. Make sure you conduct an experiment changing only 1 variable at a time. Make sure you conduct an experiment changing only 1 variable at a time. Repeat your experiments several times Repeat your experiments several times

Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion

Communicate Your Results Communicate Your Results Science fair (students) Science fair (students) Scientific Meeting (scientists) Scientific Meeting (scientists) Publish articles in journals Publish articles in journals

Example using the Scientific Method Step One: Problem or unknown.  A gardener buys two fertilizers for his tomato plants (Fertilizer A and Fertilizer B). This gardener wants to know which fertilizer will make his tomato plants produce more fruit.

Example using the Scientific Method Step Two: Researching what is known about the problem.  The gardener reads the labels of each fertilizer and tries to find any information he can on the internet about these two brands of fertilizer.

Example using the Scientific Method Step Three: Proposing a possible answer, or a hypothesis.  The gardener decides that fertilizer A will probably work better based on the research he has done on the two products.

Example using the Scientific Method Step Four: Conducting an experiment for a possible solution to the problem.  The gardener uses fertilizer A on five of his tomato plants.  Fertilizer B on the other five tomato plants he has in the garden.  He also grows five plants with no fertilizer at all.  He treats all of the plants the same: watering, soil, sunlight. The only difference is the fertilizer between the first two groups.  Fertilizer is the variable.  The untreated plants are the control group.

Example using the Scientific Method Step Five: Collecting and analyzing data from the experiment.  After a two week period, the gardener checks the amount of fruit on the 15 plants in the study. Because the gardener is counting the number of fruit on each plant, this is considered quantitative data.  Quantitative data is information that involves numbers.  Data that would not involve numbers, but instead involves such things as a description, is called qualitative data.  The results show that the five plants grown with fertilizer B have almost twice as much fruit as the five plants grown with fertilizer A. The five plants grown without any fertilizer have the least amount of fruit.

Example using the Scientific Method Step Six: Drawing conclusions based on the data collected and analyzed.  The gardener saw that his initial hypothesis that fertilizer A would work better to produce more fruit than fertilizer B was not supported. Even though his hypothesis was refuted, the gardener learned a valuable information that he can now apply to the success of his garden.

Example using the Scientific Method Step Seven: Making sure the experiment and results are repeatable.  The gardener tested these two fertilizers on five plants each within the garden, and all showed that fertilizer B produced more fruit than fertilizer A.

Example using the Scientific Method Step Eight: Sharing the results with others.  The gardener showed all his friends that grew tomatoes, the wonderful results he had obtained in his garden with the use of fertilizer B.

Scientific Method Activity Using what you have learned about the scientific method, write out a step- by-step scientific method solution to each of these problems. Be sure that each step in your solution is connected to the previous step in the scientific method. Using what you have learned about the scientific method, write out a step- by-step scientific method solution to each of these problems. Be sure that each step in your solution is connected to the previous step in the scientific method.

Questions for Activity 1. Do colorful male birds more successfully attract female birds for mating than less colorful male birds? 2. Do carpenter ants prefer to make their nests in oak or pinewood? 3. Do rose bushes grow better in acidic soil or alkaline soil?