BIO. A.1 The Nature and Science of Life
Topic Summary for Scientific Methods:
Science is an organized way of gathering and analyzing evidence about the natural world. The goals of science are to provide natural explanations for events in the natural world and to use those explanations to make useful predictions. Science is different from other human works in the following ways:
Science deals only with the natural world.
Scientists collect and organize information about the natural world in an orderly way.
Scientists propose explanations that are based on evidence, not belief.
They test those explanations with more evidence.
Methodology for scientific investigation involves:
Making an observation. Observation involves the act of noticing and describing events or processes in a careful, orderly way. Scientists use their observations to make inferences. An inference is a logical interpretation based on what scientists already know.
Suggesting hypotheses. A hypothesis is a scientific explanation for a set of observations that can be tested in ways that support or reject it.
Testing the hypothesis. Testing a hypothesis often involves designing an experiment. Whenever possible, a hypothesis should be tested by a controlled experiment—an experiment in which only one variable (the independent variable, or manipulated variable) is changed. The variable that can change in response to the independent variable is called the dependent variable, or responding variable. The control group is exposed to the same conditions as the experimental group except for one independent variable.
Collecting, recording, and analyzing data, or information gathered during the experiment.
Drawing conclusions based on data.
Topic Summary for Scientific Methods:
Science is an organized way of gathering and analyzing evidence about the natural world. The goals of science are to provide natural explanations for events in the natural world and to use those explanations to make useful predictions. Science is different from other human works in the following ways:
Science deals only with the natural world.
Scientists collect and organize information about the natural world in an orderly way.
Scientists propose explanations that are based on evidence, not belief.
They test those explanations with more evidence.
Methodology for scientific investigation involves:
Making an observation. Observation involves the act of noticing and describing events or processes in a careful, orderly way. Scientists use their observations to make inferences. An inference is a logical interpretation based on what scientists already know.
Suggesting hypotheses. A hypothesis is a scientific explanation for a set of observations that can be tested in ways that support or reject it.
Testing the hypothesis. Testing a hypothesis often involves designing an experiment. Whenever possible, a hypothesis should be tested by a controlled experiment—an experiment in which only one variable (the independent variable, or manipulated variable) is changed. The variable that can change in response to the independent variable is called the dependent variable, or responding variable. The control group is exposed to the same conditions as the experimental group except for one independent variable.
Collecting, recording, and analyzing data, or information gathered during the experiment.
Drawing conclusions based on data.