1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. Quantitative Observations
Observations that can be measured
numerically

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

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

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

9. 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.

10. Decide whether these statements are observations or inferences.
Water boils at 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

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

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

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

18. 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.