1. What is science?

2. Important Vocabulary to Know
Investigation- a procedure carried out to carefully observe, study, or test something in order to learn more about it
Science- the study of the natural world. Science involves making observations and performing investigations
Evidence- information collected during a scientific investigation
Opinion- a belief or judgement

3. What All Scientists Do Use investigations to answer questions.
Use their five senses to make observations in order to collect information
Compare objects and events to find similarities and differences
Scientists learn by thinking critically about the results of their investigations

4. Prove it!
Scientists collect evidence during a scientific investigation

5. Dr. Francesco Redi Where do maggots come from?
Common belief was that maggots came from raw meet.
Redi thought they came from flies laying eggs
Planned and conducted an investigation to find out which was right

6. Redi’s Investigation Redi set up two jars
One jar had raw meat with flies in it
The other jar had raw meet with no flies
What do you think Redi observed?

7. Redi’s Conclusion
Redi concluded that living insects can only come from other living insects

8. Drawing Conclusions
Conclusions are backed up from the evidence gathered in the investigation
The more evidence you have, the more likely your conclusions are correct
Don’t jump to conclusions to quickly
Dr. Redi repeated his experiment many times before he made his conclusion
Think about what you can infer from your observations

9. Be careful!
If we were to observed a group a spiders we might see that spiders use webs to catch food.
We could make the conclusion that all spiders use webs to catch food.
This conclusion is too general, not all spiders use webs to catch food, some hunt!

10. Opinion or Evidence?
Personal feelings and opinions should not effect investigations or conclusions
Do not ignore evidence because you don’t like the outcome

11. AHHHH Spider!

12. Observation
Inference
Opinion

13. Pass it on! Communication is a key for scientists
Scientists need to communicate so that they can share their investigations for others to repeat

14. Knowledge Grows
When scientist communicate, other scientists come up with new questions.
This is obvious with the development of video games!

15. 1792 Stephen Gray shows electricity can be carried through a wire
1882 Thomas Edison opens the first electricity generating station
1947 The transistor, needed for radios and computers, is invented
1953 The first computers are sold
1958 William Higinbotham invents the first video game
1971 First coin operated arcade video games in use
1972 The first home video game systems are sold
1977 The first handheld video games are sold
2009 Scientists use super fast video game cards in computers to investigate the structure of molecules

16. Meet Scientists
Astronomers- ask questions about how the universe works
They use time and space relationships to investigate
Use lots of math!

17. Meet Scientists Botanist- ask questions about plants
Taxonomist- identify types of living things and classify them by how they are related.
They put living things in different categories.
How can we classify the butterflies below?