1. Nature of Science Notes Nature of Science (NOS)  Process of how scientists investigate scientific phenomena  It can be controlled Internally (Personal Interests) Internally (Personal Interests) Externally (Political Interests: Atomic Bomb Externally (Political Interests: Atomic Bomb  Different than Everyday Thinking(Matthews)

2. Scientific Thinking Doesn’t  Think the world exists to serve human interests  Processes in the natural world bring about some suitable final state  Knowledge claims are validated solely by their successful predictions  Personal status alone confers authority in defining and maintaining knowledge  Knowledge is a fixed and unchanging system

3. Misconceptions of Science  Knowledge should be decided democratically  Scientific knowledge is seen as “true” or, at the other end extreme and unreliable  19% Believe that models are actual copies of reality  A particular scientific method exists and this accounts for the success of science.

4. Nature of Science Think Tube  Question Phenomena  Try Experiment to explain phenomena  Build Models to try to explain scientific phenomena

5. Nature of Science  Pursuit of scientific explanations  Improves or develops explanations for observations in our natural world  Comes from Human Curiosity  Uses Scientific Inquiry to answer questions

6. Scientific Inquiry Needs  Curiosity  Freedom to pursue curiosity  Intelligence  Honesty  Skepticism  Tolerance for Ambiguity  Openness to New Knowledge  Willingness to Share Publicly

7. Scientific Inquiry What do Scientists Do  Look at Door

8. Scientific Knowledge Continuously Changes Two Ways it can do this  New Explanations Developed  Old Explanations are Modified

9. How Do We Know What We Know  Science is Based on Observations  Explanations are Made Public  Scientific Explanations are Tentative  Scientific Explanations are Historical  Scientific explanations are Probabilistic  Scientific Explanations assume cause and effect  Scientific Explanations are limited

10. Final Thought  Science CANNOT ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS Examples Examples Meaning of LifeMeaning of Life EthicsEthics TheologyTheology  Science DOESN’T TRY TO EXPLAIN THESE

11. Some Useful Terms  Hypothesis  Control  Independent Variable  Dependent Variable  Law  Theory