Scientific Inquiry There will be a quiz tomorrow on the following 7 statements.

Scientific explanations are: 1.

1. based on empirical observations or experiments: Observable, can collect data Touch, taste, feel, see, smell, hear Technological extension of senses: see through microscope... NOT just because an authority figure says so: teacher, parent,...

2. made public: Scientists make presentations at scientific meetings Publish in professional journals Make knowledge public and available to other scientists or anyone that wants to investigate the information.

3. tentative: Explanations can and do change. The idea of gravity changed when Einstein understood relativity. –Changed regarding the speed of light. –Changed at the atomic level

4. historical: New AND old information combined. Don’t throw out old ideas. Past explanations are the basis for contemporary explanations, and those, in turn are the basis for future explanations.

5. probabilistic: It could probably happen. The statistical view of nature is evident implicitly of explicitly when stating scientific predictions of phenomena or explaining the likelihood of events in actual situations.

6. assume cause-effect relationships: What mechanisms caused an effect to occur. Much of science is directed toward determining causal relationships and developing explanations for interactions and linkages between objects, organisms and events.

7. limited: Scientific explanations sometimes are limited by technology, for example, the resolving power of microscopes and telescopes. Ideas are limited to the technology we have to use. New technologies can result in new fields of inquiry or extend current areas of study.

Science cannot answer all questions. Some questions are simply beyond the parameters of science. Many questions involving the: – meaning of life –ethics –theology are examples of questions that cannot be answered by science.

CUBE #1 How scientists do their work. You must write your own information down. Identify a question. (what number is on the bottom?)

Write down some observations or statements about the cube. Propose an answer to your questions using your observations. If __ then __ because. Could you be wrong? Could you be right?