- what the basic skills of science are;
- where scientists work;
- what the steps in the scientific method are.
What the basic skills of science are;
There is nothing magic about science. You already have some of the qualities of the scientist. You are curious. you like to do new and different things. you like to explore new places. These are the natural talents or skills of a scients.
Not all students select science for a career. However, all of you live in a society affected by science. Knowing how to apply science and knowing some of the facts of science will help you appreciate and understand your modern world.
Let's look more closely at the skills of a sientist. The most basic skill is observing. Observing is what we see, hear, smell, touch, or taste.
Eyes are extremely important in making observations. However, the way people see varies from person to person.
Describing is another skill of the scientist. Describing is writing or telling about observations. A good description allows us to share observations with others. Describing often includes the skill of identifying, or naming something.
A skill that build upon observing, describing, and identifying is the skill of inferring. Inferring is drawing conclusions based on what you see and what you already know.
Where do Life scientists work?
Some carry out experiments in laboratories. Other life scientists do their research in fields, in forests, on mountaintops, or under the sea. The where of scientific work varies. But the how follows a definite, orderly pattern.
Let's look at a yearly event and see how scientific research could help explain it. Every spring, newspapers eport that the swallows have returned to San juan Capistrano, California. These birds usually come back to this place on March 19. They return to their nesting places in flocks. A few swallow scouts may appear as much as a week before the main flocks.
What do we know about swallows? Swallows eat insects. If temperatures are too low for the insects to appear, the swallows remain farther south. Usually conditions are right for the return to Capistrano on March 19.
What are the steps in the scientific method?
Imagine you are a life scientist and you want to study this yearly return of the swallows. Here are the five steps in the scientific method you would follow:
- State the problem. What is the question you are concerned about? In the example above it is "Why do swallows return on about March 19?"
- Collect Information. Do research on the habits of swallows and the weather conditions in San Juan Capistrano. Get any other information that will help you understand the problem.
- Form a guess based on information - a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a possible explanation for a group of related observations. One guess might be that the swallows return when the insects appear. Or the swallows return when the temperature is favorable.
- Test the hypothesis. Your hypothesis is tested by making careful obsevations. You will need to know the temperature of San Juan Capistrano. You also need to know the number of insects and the date of arrival of the birds for several years.
- Draw a conclusion. The conclusion you make must relate directly to your observations. A conclusion is an explanation of the results of your testing. After a number of years, you may form a theory about the swallos' return. A theory is a statement of a hypothesis which seems to explain observations. That is, a theory has evidence to support it. A theory can be changed if better evidence is available. Scientific theories are constantly being revised as new information is discovered.