Notesale: Turn your study into money

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Christine V
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Lewis
Director, Education and Outreach,
Geological Society of America

Contributing GSA Education
Committee members:

Rob Van der Voo
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich
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Sverdrup
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wis
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Riestenberg
College of Mount Saint Joseph, Cincinnati, Ohio
Virginia L
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Wendi J
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Williams
University of Arkansas, Little Rock, Ark
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Larissa Grawe DeSantis
University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla
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Stephen R
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Steve Boyer
Tacoma, Wash
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H
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Photo by Gary B
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Table of Contents
What is Science?
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2
Observation
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2
Hypothesis
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3
Evaluation
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4
Fact:
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4
Scientific Theory (or Law):
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5
Scientific Method and Earth Sciences
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7
Talking Points about Science
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8
On Evolution, Creation Science,
and Intelligent Design
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9

iii

Nature of Science and the Scientific Method
“The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible
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Explanations
that cannot be based on empirical evidence are not a part of science (National Academy of Sciences, 1998)
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Over time,
however, repeated reproduction and verification of observations
and experimental results can overcome these weaknesses
...

Scientific knowledge is based on some assumptions (after
Nickels, 1998), such as
• The world is REAL; it exists apart from our sensory perception of it
...

• Natural processes are sufficient to explain or account
for natural phenomena or events
...

• By the nature of human mental processing, rooted in
previous experiences, our perceptions may be inaccurate or biased
...
Scientific knowledge
is necessarily contingent knowledge rather than absolute, and therefore must be evaluated and assessed, and
is subject to modification in light of new evidence
...

• Scientific explanations are probabilistic
...

As stated in the National Science Education Standards for
the Nature of Science:

Science is a methodical approach to studying the natural
world
...

Most scientists would not say that science leads to an
understanding of the truth
...
Scientific explanations can be inferred from confirmable data only, and observations and experiments must be
reproducible and verifiable by other individuals
...

The scientific method, it could be said, is a way of learning
or a process of using comparative critical thinking
...
Falsifiability is the principle that a proposition or theory cannot be scientific if it does not admit the possibility of being shown false
...

Anything that cannot be observed or measured or shown to be

Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature using
observation, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical
models
...
Those ideas are not likely to change greatly in the
future
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(NSES, 1996, p
...


1

The Nature of Science and the Scientific Method
The Standards for Science Teacher Preparation correctly
state that
Understanding of the nature of science—the goals, values and
assumptions inherent in the development and interpretation of
scientific knowledge (Lederman, 1992)—has been an objective
of science instruction since at least the turn of the last century
...
Knowledge of the nature of science can enable individuals to make
more informed decisions with respect to scientifically based
issues; promote students’ in-depth understandings of “traditional” science subject matter; and help them distinguish science from other ways of knowing…
Research clearly shows most students and teachers do not
adequately understand the nature of science
...
Even when
teachers understand and support the need to include the nature
of science in their instruction, they do not always do so
...
Explicit instruction is needed both
to prepare teachers and to lead students to understand the nature
of science
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16)

Scientific Method
Throughout the past millennium, there has been a realization by leading thinkers that the acquisition of knowledge
can be performed in such a way as to minimize inconsistent
conclusions
...
(Discours de la
Méthode, 1637, section I, 120)

By sticking to certain accepted “rules of reasoning,” scientific method helps to minimize influence on results by personal,
social, or unreasonable influences
...
This pathway may take
different forms; in fact, creative flexibility is essential to scientific thinking, so there is no single method that all scientists use,
but each must ultimately have a conclusion that is testable and
falsifiable; otherwise, it is not science
...
Some descriptions actually list and number
three to fourteen procedural steps
...

That being said, it is most important that students realize
that the scientific method is a form of critical thinking that will
be subjected to review and independent duplication in order to
reduce the degree of uncertainty
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Observation

The first process in the scientific method involves the
observation of a phenomenon, event, or “problem
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The discovery may
even be by chance, although it is likely the observer would be
in the right frame of mind to make the observation
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Question

Observation leads to a question that needs to be answered
to satisfy human curiosity about the observation, such as why or
how this event happened or what it is like (as in the light beam)
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Scientific questions need to be answerable and lead to the formation
of a hypothesis about the problem
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This is
an educated guess regarding the question’s answer
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Hypothesis development
depends upon a careful characterization of the subject of the
investigation
...
Sometimes numerous working hypotheses may be
used for a single subject, as long as research indicates they are
all applicable
...

A scientific hypothesis has to be testable and also has to be
falsifiable
...
”

the hypothesis fail
...
If it does fail, another
hypothesis may be tested, usually one that has taken into consideration the fact that the last tested hypothesis failed
...
For example, Alfred Wegener’s idea that
the continents have drifted apart from each other was deemed
impossible because of what was known in the early 1900s about
the composition of the continental crust and the oceanic crust
...
Years later, it was shown
that one aspect of Wegener’s idea, that the continents were once
together, was most likely correct (although not as separate units
but as part of a larger plate)
...
Instead, magma appears to have arisen
between them and formed new oceanic crust while the plates carrying the continents diverged on either side The exact mechanism
of how the plates were pushed apart from the rising magma, or
were pulled apart, allowing magma to rise between them, or a
combination of both, is still not completely understood
...
For example, if the hypothesis is true,
then (1) should happen when (2) is manipulated
...
There should be no other variables in the experiment that may affect the dependent variable
...
If the
supernatural is defined as events or phenomena that cannot be
perceived by natural or empirical senses, then they do not follow any natural rules or regularities and so cannot be scientifically tested
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Experiment

Once the hypothesis has been established, it is time to test
it
...

An experiment is designed to prove or disprove the hypothesis
...

The average layperson may think of the above kind of picture when thinking of science experiments
...
Einstein relied on mathematics
to “predict” his hypotheses on the nature of space and time in
the universe
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Testing and experimentation can occur in the laboratory, in
the field, on the blackboard, or the computer
...
The data should be available to determine if the interpretations are unbiased and free
from prejudice
...
The evaluation process in
science truly makes it necessary for scientists to be accurate,
innovative, and comprehensive
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In areas where active research is being pursued and in which
there is not a great deal of experimental or observational evidence and understanding, it is normal for scientists to differ with
one another about the interpretation of the evidence or theory
being considered
...
Ideally, scientists acknowledge such conflict and
work towards finding evidence that will resolve their disagreement
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171)

Fact: 1
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2
...
3
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Something demonstrated to exist or known to have existed: Genetic engineering
is now a fact
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b
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Hypothesis: An educated proposal to explain certain facts;
a tentative explanation for an observation, phenomenon, or scientific problem that can be tested by further investigation
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A theory can often generate additional hypotheses and testable predictions
...

Unfortunately, the common/non-scientific definition for
theory is quite different, and is more typically thought of as a
belief that can guide behavior
...
” Because of the nature of this
definition, some people wrongly assume scientific theories are
speculative, unsupported, or easily cast aside, which is very far
from the truth
...
Accepted scientific theories also produce testable predictions that are successful
...
They might formulate their own hypothesis, or they might
adopt the original hypothesis and deduce their own predictions
...
Published results can also serve as a
hypothesis predicting the reproducibility of those results
...
Qualitative and quantitative mathematical analysis may
also be applied
...
It
should also be maintained that scientific explanations are tentative and subject to modification
...
Evaluation
includes reviewing the experimental procedures, examining the
evidence, identifying faulty reasoning, pointing out statements
that go beyond the evidence, and suggesting alternative explanations for the same observations
...
As scientific knowledge
evolves, major disagreements are eventually resolved through
such interactions between scientists
...
171)

Thus, evaluation is integral to the process of scientific
method
...

Full-blown academic battles have been wagged in scientific

Fossil Lab at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
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5

The Nature of Science and the Scientific Method

Theories are powerful tools (National Science Teachers
Association, The Teaching of Evolution Position Statement):
Scientists seek to develop theories that
• are firmly grounded in and based upon evidence;
• are logically consistent with other well-established principles;
• explain more than rival theories; and
• have the potential to lead to new knowledge
...
This is particularly important
in concepts that involve past events, which cannot be tested
...
More and more data will be gathered on each to either
support or disprove them
...

A scientific law, said Karl Popper, the famous 20th century
philosopher, is one that can be proved wrong, like “the sun always
rises in the east
...
For example,
as the renowned biologist J
...
S
...
”
So far that has not happened, and in fact the positive evidence for
the “theory” of evolution is extensive, made up of hundreds of
thousands of mutually corroborating observations
...
Like evolution, most accepted scientific theories have withstood the test of time and falsifiability to
become the backbone of further scientific investigations
...
Nearly all civilizations, however, have evidence of methods, concepts, or tech-

niques that were scientific in nature
...
Observations of the natural world and
their application to daily activities assuredly helped the human
race survive from the earliest times
...

An excellent example of the development of science and the
scientific method is the demise of the geocentric view of the solar
system
...
In the 16th and 17th centuries, observers began to make more
detailed observations of the movements of the stars and planets,
made increasingly complex with the aide of the newly invented
telescope
...
With the application of mathematics to their precise measurements, it became obvious to astronomers like Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo that the planets and
Earth must revolve around the sun (heliocentric)
...
C
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Earth’s spherical nature was not only
well known by about 300 B
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, but good measurements of Earth’s
circumference had already been made by that time
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New discoveries and technological advancements led to
what is known as the Scientific Revolution, a period of time
between Copernicus and Sir Isaac Newton during which a core
transformation in “natural philosophy” (science) began in cosmology and astronomy and then shifted to physics
...

The learned view of things in 16th-century thought was that
the world was composed of Four Qualities (Aristotle’s Earth,
Water, Air, and Fire)
...
By Newton’s day most of learned Europe believed the Earth moved, that
there was no such thing as demonic possession, that claims to
knowledge … should be based on the authority of our individual experience, that is, on argument and sensory evidence
...
(Hatch, 1991, p
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Location near 50N, 30W
...

Although the exact dates of the Scientific Revolution may be

The Nature of Science and the Scientific Method

6

disputed by science historians, Newton is most commonly considered the “end” of the revolution, because his work brought
the heavens and Earth together as a universe that operates under
universal laws of motion, changing forever how scientists studied
it
...
Humans felt
free to not be told how things happen, but to study and detect and
experiment with how the world works in their own ways
...


Scientific Method and Earth Sciences
Finding fossils in Silurian rocks in Canberra, Australia
...
There are many
ways to apply the scientific thought process without necessarily using all the steps listed previously
...
Your mind will
jump through a succession of hypotheses that you will test until
you find the hypothesis that is correct
...
You will continue thinking of hypotheses and testing
them until you have found one that is correct, and if you don’t,
you will call in an expert who will go through the same process
but with a more educated background in the possible solutions
...
This
study is necessary in order to understand the natural world around
us, including natural disasters (from hurricanes to earthquakes to
volcanoes) and where to find and get natural resources (including
energy, minerals, and fresh water) (Punaridge
...

As an example of using the scientific method, consider a
study of faster flowing sections of ice that lie within large glaciers in the Antarctic:
1
...
,
if there are any
...
Make field observations of the glacier being studied and
the exceptional “rivers” of ice that flow faster than the
ice around them
...
Identify physical conditions and take measurements
with all necessary technology at your disposal and over
a certain prescribed time frame at the glacier
...
Construct a model describing a possible method for the
ice in this one section of the glacier to move faster than
the ice around it, as shown by the data collected
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5
...
The prediction
would be that upon drilling to the bottom of the glacier,
a wet material would be found that is not found under
other areas of the glacier
...
Test the predictions in the field by designing an experiment
to collect the right type of data to answer the questions
...
Results showed that underlying the fastermoving areas of ice was a wet mud and gravel slurry not
found in other areas, perhaps from an old stream bed, that
provided lubrication for the ice above it
...
Controlled
experiments (usually carried out in laboratories) are carefully
designed to test a specific hypothesis, and they can be repeated
...
g
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Geologists must collect data by mapping or collecting specimens
...

The Theory of Plate Tectonics again is an excellent example
...
He proposed a hypothesis that the
continents had drifted apart based on this “circumstantial evidence,” which was not accepted in his lifetime
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As more
and more evidence was produced, his hypothesis was modified and refined into a theory we now know as Plate Tectonics
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Many

7

The Nature of Science and the Scientific Method

On the Nature of Science
1
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2
...

3
...

4
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It allows us to connect the
past with the present
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Science provides us with a way to present ideas that can
be tested, repeated, and verified
...
Scientific claims are based on testing explanations
against observations of the natural world and rejecting the
ones that fail the test
...
Scientists gather evidence (as opposed to “proof”) to support or falsify hypotheses
...

8
...
Theories are supported, modified, or replaced as new evidence appears
and are central to scientific thinking
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There is no such thing as “THE Scientific Method
...

10
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Science never requires ideas to
be accepted on belief or faith alone
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“Explanations on how the natural world changes based on
myths, personal beliefs, religious values, mystical inspiration, superstition, or authority may be personally useful
and socially relevant, but they are not science
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201)
12
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” (NSTA, 2003
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16)
13
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Science provides a
method of understanding the natural world only
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Science cannot make moral or aesthetic judgments
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Understanding what makes eyes blue or green does not
indicate which is more beautiful
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Creationism, creation science, Intelligent Design (ID), or
any other spiritual concept, involve events or phenomena
that cannot be tested, verified, or repeated through scientific methodology and, therefore, cannot be measured using
scientific practice
...

2
...

3
...
Solid and long-held theories such as
evolution or relativity stand as important foundations of
science because they have proven, so far, unassailable
(but not from want of trying…)
...
Evolution is a theory that has developed since Darwin’s
initial concepts
...

5
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(NSTA recommendation)
6
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I accept the inference that Earth
is very old and life has changed over billions of years
because that is what the evidence tells us
...
(Adapted from the Understanding Evolution Web site
...

Other Earth science–related discoveries that caused major
conceptual changes in the way humans view their world were
the discovery that Earth is spherical and not flat; that all the
planets revolve around the sun, not around Earth; and that fossils give us a detailed, logical record of the evolutionary development of biological organisms on Earth
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Conclusion
Percy W
...
No working
scientist, when he plans an experiment in the laboratory, asks
himself whether he is being properly scientific, nor is he interested in whatever method he may be using as method
...
The working scientist is always too
much concerned with getting down to brass tacks to be willing
to spend his time on generalities
...
What appears to
him as the essence of the situation is that he is not consciously
following any prescribed course of action, but feels complete
freedom to utilize any method or device whatever, which in the
particular situation before him seems likely to yield the correct
answer
...


8

No one standing on the outside can predict what the individual
scientist will do or what method he will follow
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Bibliography and Additional Resources
The following were used in writing this synopsis or are
listed as sources for additional information:
AAAS: Science and Evolution: http://www
...
org/spp/dser/evolution/index
...

Abd-El-Khalick, F
...
G
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Improving science teachers’
conceptions of the nature of science: A critical review of the literature
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Crowe, Michael J
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Farndon, J
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, 1992
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, The Scientific Revolution, University of Florida; http://web
...
ufl
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htm, 1991
...
P
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, 1987
...
G
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Students’ and teachers’ conceptions of the nature of
science: A review of the research
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Mason, Stephen F
...

National Center for Science Education: http://www
...
org/
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nsf
...

National Science Board: Ch 7 Science and Technology Public Attitudes and
Understanding at http://www
...
gov/statistics/seind06/c7/c7s2
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National Science Education Standards (NSES), National Academy Press,
Washington, D
...
, 1996
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National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), Standards for Science Teacher
Preparation,
http://www
...
org/main/pdfs/NSTAstandards2003
...

NSTA Press, Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science
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nsta
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Percy W
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, 1964
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(translation of Logik der Forschung)
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Punaridge
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punaridge
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htm (last accessed August 2006)
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berkeley
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