Exploring the Nature of Science: Understanding Scientific Methodology and Practices

1. Unit 1 Nature of Science

2. Warm-up • Finish processing through the “Lost at Sea” activity • Have columns 1 and 2 filled out • Be ready to discuss • Questions to think about • What characteristics did the items that you ranked #1-5 have in common? • Items # 11-15?

3. Discussion • What criteria drove your decision making? • What were your lowest priority items and why? • What were your highest priority items and why?

4. Mystery Boxes • Each box has a vertical barrier(s) inside of it • Your job is to figure out the configuration of it • Discuss the following with your table: • Any guesses • Any thought process you went through to prove (disprove) each guess • Final configuration

5. Sample configurations Hole in the middle

6. Sample configurations 3, 4 2 1, 5, 10 Hole in the middle 8, 9 6,7

7. Before we get going, let’s take a look back

8. Black Boxes

11. 1 black box after another

12. 400BC - Hippocrates

13. 4 Humours • Blood, black bile, yellow bile, phlegm • Believed that sickness was caused by an imbalance in the humours • Led to blood letting and medicines that induced vomiting and bowel movements

14. Maternal Imprintation • Believed that thoughts a pregnant woman had would be transferred to her child

15. Spontaneous Generation • Believed that living organisms could arise from non-living matter

16. Led to recipes for organisms • Making a scorpion • Place basil between 2 bricks • Place the bricks in sunlight • Wait

17. Phlogiston • Believed matter contained a fifth element, phlogiston that allowed things to burn. • When things burned, the phlogiston would be released into the air • Believed that people breathed to get rid of phlogiston in body.

18. 200AD – Galen (physician in Rome) • Knew heart pumped blood • Thought the heart irrigated the organs with • blood and made knew blood all the time • This idea was taught for 1500 years

19. 1700’s – William Harvey • Discovered blood was pumped in a continuous circuit • Calculated that it was impossible for the heart to make 540 pounds of blood that it pumps in 1 hour • Coupled logical reasoning with calculation of an unobservable activity led to more advances in Science

20. The Microscope – 1600 - 1700’s • Gross structure of organisms was known but finer levels were not • Needed something more than the naked eye • Discovery of cells

21. Investigations of cells – electron microscopes (1930)

23. The Greatest Black Box Ever • HOW DOES LIFE WORK? • Eyes are used for seeing, but how do they work? • How does blood clot? • Subcellular organelles are made of what?

24. Bridging the Gap

26. DNA

27. Eye Function

28. What does this all mean? NO MORE BLACK BOXES LEFT?

29. Warm-up (8/28) • Warm-up: As a group, organize the statements in the envelopes into categories and be ready to explain your criteria for sorting • Objectives: • Define Science • Communicate correct lab techniques and experimentation practices

30. What is Science? As a table, pick one of the statements from the last activity and justify whether or not it is science Whiteboard your rational using multiple evidences to support your claim

31. Criteria Discussion

32. What is Science?

33. Criteria for Science • CONPTT • Consistency: • repeated results or observations • Observability: • event or evidence can be perceived using human senses • Natural: • observable causes explain how and why events occur • Predictability: • observation or extension of data can forecast a future event • Testability: • predictions can be tested using scientific methods • Tentativeness • Science is a dynamic • Revisions, corrections, or disproval of theories occurs as new information and technology becomes available Source: Evolution and Nature of Science Institute (ENSI) www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb • Tentativeness • Science is a dynamic • Revisions, corrections, or disproval of theories occurs as new information and technology becomes available

34. What is the Nature of Science? • Science has limits – only natural phenomena • Scientific knowledge is inherently uncertain – based on how much it has been tested • Science can be done poorly – there are better methods and conclusions than others • Science is a social process – collaboration is key

35. If not science, then what is it? • “Near Science” • Confirms some but not all CONPTT • Limited observations and predictions • “Limited observations and predictions • Doesn’t meet CONPTT criteria • Based on logic, but not within scientific realm • “Psuedoscience” • Portrayed or advertised as valid by practitioners and supporters

36. Evaluate Your NOS Understanding • Nature of Science Knowledge Survey • Take 5 minutes to individually complete the NOS survey • Use a star to mark 3 statements you answered with confidence or certainty • Use a check to mark 3 statements you are unsure of or require further clarification

37. 15. B 16. A 17. A 18. B 19. B 20. A 21. A 22. A 23. B 24. B 25. B 1. B 2. B 3. A 4. B 5. B 6. A 7. A 8. B 9. A 10. B 11. B 12. B 13. A 14. B

38. Experimental Design • Monty Python Clip

39. Warm-up (8/29) • Review over the CONPTT acronym with your group • Review your experimental design • Revise if needed – remember precision is key • Formulate the game plan for your experiment (who’s doing what where)

40. Criteria for Science • CONPTT • Consistency: • repeated results or observations • Observability: • event or evidence can be perceived using human senses • Natural: • observable causes explain how and why events occur • Predictability: • observation or extension of data can forecast a future event • Testability: • predictions can be tested using scientific methods • Tentativeness • Science is a dynamic • Revisions, corrections, or disproval of theories occurs as new information and technology becomes available Source: Evolution and Nature of Science Institute (ENSI) www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb • Tentativeness • Science is a dynamic • Revisions, corrections, or disproval of theories occurs as new information and technology becomes available

41. Today • Objectives: • Know what it takes to make a valid experiment • Review basic chemistry concepts • Homework • Read chapters 1-3 • Complete biochem practice • Group quiz tomorrow

42. What to know • Bonding • Covalent • Polar • Non-polar • Ionic • Hydrogen • Parts of an atom • Ions • Atomic number/mass • Isotope vs Isomer

43. Challenge • Determine which brand of bubbles or bouncy ball is the best • You need to define “best” • Focus on making the most valid experiment (limit error) • Remember the process is more important than the end result in lab

44. Timeline • Develop experiment (rough draft) – 15 min • Have me approve it • Run experiment – 15 min • Whiteboard – 15 min • Experimental design – description/drawings • Variables, constants, controls • Data tables • Graph • Discussion – 15 min

45. Whiteboard • Problem: (define best) • Brief description/picture of experiment • Graph • Possible error concerns

46. Problem • What does best mean? • Most bounces • Longest time bouncing • Straightest bounce • Multiple surfaces • All of the above – use a ranking system

47. Experiment • Did you have to make adjustments? • What precision concerns did you have? • Timing vs counting • How to drop it • How to read the height

48. Data • Bar or Line graph? • How much?

49. Scientific Method review

50. Hypothesis • If-then statement – shows a relationship • If athletic performance is related to diet, then eating a 4 protein : 2 carbohydrate meal 4 hours before a 100M race will lower the runners time.