1. Thinking like a Scientist

2. Science is an organized way of using evidence to learn about the natural world.
The word science also refers to the body of knowledge that scientists have built up after years of using this process.

3. What is the goal of science?
The goal of science is to:
investigate and understand the natural world.
explain events in the natural world.
use those explanations to make useful predictions.

4. Thinking Like a Scientist
Scientific thinking begins with observation.
Observation is the process of using your senses to gather information about events or processes in a careful, orderly, accurate and objective way.
Accurate: exact report of what your senses tell you
Objective: avoids opinions (or bias) based on a previously held point of view (just the facts, please)
Our 5 senses are: touch, taste, smell, hearing, sight

5. Observation vs. Opinion
Science is about facts, not opinions
Saying a dress is red is a fact
The color red is observable with your senses, red is always the same
Saying a dress is pretty is an opinion
everyone likes different types & colors of dresses so the idea of pretty is different for different people

6. The information gathered by observations or experiments is called data.
QuaNtitative data: expressed as Numbers, obtained by counting or measuring
2) Qualitative data: descriptive words (adjectives) used and involves characteristics that aren’t or can NOT
easily be counted or measured
QuaNtitative: 8 zebras are in this picture
Qualitative: most zebras are looking to the right

7. Types of Observations QuaNtitative observations–numbers involved
e.g. he is 7 feet 1 inch
Qualitative observations- words involved
e.g. he is very tall

8. Scientists use data to make inferences.
Inference: logical thinking or interpretation of observations based prior knowledge, experience or opinions; it is attempted explanations or conclusions based on data gathered from observations; any type of thinking process done from observations
Observation is what you see (or hear, feel, etc.)
Inference is what you think about what you’ve observed or figure out from what you’ve observed
Example: Testing lake water by checking small amounts, or samples, may allow the scientist to infer that all the water in a lake is safe.

9. Or: it was hot today so I’ll predict that it will be hot tomorrow too
Scientists make predictions.
Predictions: use of knowledge to explain what might happen in the future
e.g. (Example): Since the water has tested safe, I predict that no one will die from drinking it.
Or: it was hot today so I’ll predict that it will be hot tomorrow too

10. Practice: Write 3 observations & make one inference about this picture
Observation is what you see (or hear, touch, etc.)
Inference is what you figure out

11. Science is involved in solving problems in the natural world
Solving any problem requires organization.
In science, this organization often takes the form of a series of procedures or methods referred to as the scientific method.

12. Scientific Method: Common procedures used by scientists to gather information used in problem solving and in designing & doing experiments to test ideas & learn new things about the natural world.

13. Steps of the Scientific Method:
State the Problem or Ask a Question about the natural world
Gather Information or do some research so you can learn more about the topic
Form a Hypothesis- which is a testable prediction of what you think might happen in the test (experiment)

14. Steps of the Scientific Method:
4) Perform an Experiment-(Yeah, labs!)
5) Analyze Data-review & interpret the facts learned during the experiment
6) Draw Conclusions-after it’s all done, what did you learn from the experiment?
Sometimes models are used to help visualize your work or conclusions
Models are created to help see (or visualize) ideas in a way that’s easier to work from e.g. globes of Earth, drawings of cells, etc.

15. The Scientific Method starts when you…..
State the Problem or Ask a Question: It starts when you ask a question about something that you observe (How, What, When, Who, Which, Why, or Where?)
Observation: using our senses to collect or bring together information
What are your senses, anyway?

16. Gather Information: Do background research.
3) Form a Hypothesis: A question or statement that can be tested. If it can’t be tested, it’s not a Hypothesis

17. A hypothesis is a possible explanation for a set of observations.
A hypothesis must be proposed in a way that can be tested.
Hypotheses are tested by performing controlled experiments or by gathering new data (observations, etc.)
A hypothesis must be tested by doing experiments or by doing more observations before we know for sure that it is true
A hypothesis may be ruled out as not true or found to be correct (confirmed as valid), both are important to know

18. Example: How do organisms come into being?
Many years ago, people wanted to know how living things came into existence or how they started living or growing. They started with a question that asked:
How do organisms come into being?

19. One early hypothesis was spontaneous generation, or the idea that life could come from nonliving matter. For example, most people thought that maggots spontaneously appeared on meat.
Hypothesis: testable question or prediction
People used to think
that maggots appeared
spontaneously or
suddenly, all by themselves,
almost by magic

20. Maggots-
white caterpillar like creators that are part of a fly’s life cycle, they later
become flies