1. Scientific Inquiry Mr. Wai-Pan Chan 2013

2. Scientific Inquiry Research & Exploratory Investigation Scientific inquiry is a way to investigate things, events or phenomena OR to acquire new knowledge OR to correct previous knowledge by proposing a hypothesis, gathering and observing empirical or measurable evidence and data through experimentation, explaining and analyzing the results based on principles of logics and reasoning to come up with a conclusion, a solution or a new discovery.

3. Important contents Hypothesis: pre-knowledge; observation of phenomenon; formulation of questions; prediction; proposed methodology Experimental design (material, procedure, data collection) Execution of Experiment:Testing & Data collection & Data recording Data analysis (organizing data, compare & contrast, trending, Confirmation or disproval of hypothesis) Socratic Questioning (clarification, assumptions, rationale, perspectives, implications, motives) Reflection Conclusion and further conjecture with new hypothesis

4. Scientific Research and Exploratory Investigation Hunting: set goal and collect evidence towards that goal. Advantage: focus, and reach goal faster; Disadvantage: filtered observation and collection of result, may miss important discovery Exploring: no set goal but try to collect all data without filtration. Advantage: able to find new discovery; Disadvantage: takes long time and needs to be very careful

5. Scientific Research and Exploratory Investigation What is Scientific Inquiry Tools to be used: communication skill, collaborative skill (teamwork), personal skill, critical thinking Define the scope of science by Literature search & Preliminary exploration Establish Hypothesis: observation, pre- knowledge, guess Define goal (answers, projection, new discovery), focus (reductionism, priority, efficiency) and scope of interest

6. Scientific Inquiry-1 Questioning Acquire basic knowledge Understanding, Reflection, Literature Search Formulation of question: process from generalized to specific A research question is an extension of your purpose statement and specifically states the questions you will attempt to answer. Usually, research questions are used when your study’s purpose is more exploratory or descriptive. Review prior research Determine Research Hypothesis and its Purpose: Explore: an attempt to generate ideas about the subject Describe: an attempt to describe the characteristics of the subject Explain: an attempt to show why and how List all the “unknowns” and the “lack of information” Formulate questions for each one

7. Scientific Inquiry-2 Experimental design Define the types of experiments to proof the hypothesis Estimate different perspectives to determine number of experiments needed Estimate the outcome of each experiment and propose alternatives for variable results Set up protocol: or use of current SOP Logistics: create list of materials, equipment, and data analysis tools and set up experiments How to executing experiments, observe, record in a GLP rules How to tabulate, graph and organize data according to the goals How to interpret the data, or results by comparing to the searched literatures

8. Scientific Inquiry-3 Make appropriate conclusions – Summarize the result and analysis – How does the conclusion answer the hypothesis – What are the discrepancies and the source of error – Future alternatives to answer a. unanswered questions; b. incomplete answers; c. new questions – What are the improvements that can be made to achieve the goal of exploring the extensions of the hypotheses