Nature of science - misconceptions and concepts
Doing science,
Perspectives of science as a discipline or as a subject, & Science as a social endeavor

Beginning concepts (preschool - 7 years)

Doing science

1. When an investigation is repeated there is usually similar results.
2. Science is a human endeavor.
3. Scientists answer questions with observations.
4. Scientific ideas change with time.
5. Ideas and inventions affect people.
6. When an investigation is repeated there is usually similar results.
7. Scientists answer questions with observations.
8. People can often learn about things around them by just observing those things carefully, but sometimes they can learn more by doing something to the things and noting what happens.
9. Although men and women using scientific inquiry have learned much about the objects, events, and phenomena in nature, much more remains to be understood. Science will never be finished.

Perspectives of science discipline or as a subject

1. Scientists can disagree and work together to collect information that they agree with to understand the world.
2. Science is a human endeavor.
3. Scientific ideas change with time.

Science as a social endeavor

1. Science ideas can be shared with others.
2. People can agree and disagree on exploring similar and different ideas.
3. Scientists can disagree and work together to collect information that they agree with to understand the world.

Intermediate concepts (7 years - 11 years)

Doing science

1. Science investigations turn out exactly the same if variables are identified and controlled, different investigation methods are identified, and observations are accurate.
2. Science is a creative process.
3. Scientists create questions, design an experiment, and use observations to answer their questions.
4. All scientific ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement.
5. However, most scientific ideas change incrementally retaining core ideas with a sort of modification for clarity rather than complete revision.
6. Science is a process with a community of scientists that review and support each other and the understanding of the natural world.
7. The scientific method can not answer all questions.
8. Results of similar scientific investigations seldom turn out exactly the same. Sometimes this is because of unexpected differences in the things being investigated, sometimes because of unrealized differences in the methods used or in the circumstances in which the investigation is carried out, and sometimes just because of uncertainties in observations.
9. It is not always easy to tell which.
10. Scientific investigations may take many different forms, including observing what things are like or what is happening somewhere, collecting specimens for analysis, and doing experiments.
11. Investigations can focus on physical, biological, and social questions.
12. Scientists' explanations about what happens in the world come partly from what they observe, partly from what they think.
13. Sometimes scientists have different explanations for the same set of observations. That usually leads to their making more observations to resolve the differences.
14. Scientists' explanations about what happens in the world come partly from what they observe, partly from what they think.
15. Sometimes scientists have different explanations for the same set of observations. That usually leads to their making more observations to resolve the differences.
16. Scientists do not pay much attention to claims about how something they know about works unless the claims are backed up with evidence that can be confirmed and with a logical argument.
17. Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature using observation, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models.
18. Although all scientific ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement in principle, for most major ideas in science, there is much experimental and observational confirmation. Those ideas are not likely to change greatly in the future.
19. Scientists do and have changed their ideas about nature when they encounter new experimental evidence that does not match their existing explanations.

Perspectives of science discipline or as a subject

1. Tracing the history of science can show how difficult it was for scientific innovators to break through the accepted ideas of their time to reach the conclusions that we currently take for granted.
2. Science investigations turn out exactly the same if variables are identified and controlled, different investigation methods are identified, and observations are accurate.
3. Science is a creative process.
4. Scientists create questions, design an experiment, and use observations to answer their questions.
5. All scientific ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement. However, most scientific ideas change incrementally retaining core ideas with a sort of modification for clarity rather than complete revision.
6. The scientific method can not answer all questions.

Science as a social endeavor

1. Science is a process with a community of scientists that review and support each other and the understanding of the natural world.
2. People continue inventing new ways of doing things, solving problems, and getting work done.
3. New ideas and inventions often affect other people' sometimes the effects are good and sometimes they are bad.
4. It is helpful to try to determine in advance how ideas and inventions will affect other people.
5. The effect of science on society is neither entirely beneficial nor entirely detrimental.
6. Society challenges often inspire questions for scientific, research, and social priorities often influence research priorities through the availability of funding for research.
7. Science influences society through its knowledge and world view.
8. Technology influences society through its products and processes.
9. Science and technology have advanced through contributions of many different people, in different cultures,

Literate concepts (11+)

Doing science

1. When scientists encounter new experimental evidence, that does not match their existing explanations, they decide if the differences are trivial or significant with additional investigations.
2. If they decide the differences are significant they do and have changed their ideas.
3. Doing science involves creativity, imagination, and logical thinking to generate and test the validity of ideas.
4. Scientists formulate and test their explanations using observations, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models.
5. Most major ideas in science have much experimental and observational confirmation that is not likely to change much in the future.
6. Accepted scientific theories are powerful models for explaining past, present, and future phenomena and events.
7. The validity of an explanation being a function of the type and amount of evidence to support the theory.
8. Scientific knowledge is subject to modification as new information challenges prevailing theories and as a new theory leads to looking at old observations in a new way.
9. Scientists differ greatly in what phenomena they study and how they go about their work. Although there is no fixed set of steps that all scientists follow, scientific investigations usually involve the collection of relevant evidence, the use of logical reasoning, and the application of imagination in devising hypotheses and explanations to make sense of the collected evidence.
10. From time to time, major shifts occur in the scientific view of how the world works. More often, however, the changes that take place in the body of scientific knowledge are small modifications of prior knowledge.
11. Change and continuity are persistent features of science.
12. No matter how well one theory fits observations, a new theory might fit them just as well or better, or might fit a wider range of observations.
13. In science, the testing, revising, and occasional discarding of theories, new and old, never ends.
14. This ongoing process leads to an increasingly better understanding of how things work in the world but not to absolute truth.
15. Evidence for the value of this approach is given by the improving ability of scientists to offer reliable explanations and make accurate predictions.
16. In the short run, new ideas that do not mesh well with mainstream ideas in science often encounter vigorous criticism. In the long run, theories are judged by how they fit with other theories, the range of observations they explain, how well they explain observations, and how effective they are in predicting new findings.
17. Science distinguishes itself from other ways of knowing and from other bodies of knowledge through the use of empirical standards, logical arguments, and skepticism, as scientists strive for the best possible explanations about the natural world.
18. Scientific explanations must meet certain criteria. First and foremost, they must be consistent with experimental and observational evidence about nature, and must make accurate predictions, when appropriate, about systems being studied.
19. They should also be logical, respect the rules of evidence, be open to criticism, report methods and procedures, and make knowledge public.
20. 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 scientific.
21. Because all scientific ideas depend on experimental and observational confirmation, all scientific knowledge is, in principle, subject to change as new evidence becomes available.
22. The core ideas of science such as the conservation of energy or the laws of motion have been subjected to a wide variety of confirmations and are therefore unlikely to change in the areas in which they have been tested. In areas where data or understanding are incomplete, such as the details of human evolution or questions surrounding global warming, new data may well lead to changes in current ideas or resolve current conflicts.
23. In situations where information is still fragmentary, it is normal for scientific ideas to be incomplete, but this is also where the opportunity for making advances may be greatest.
24. The historical perspective of scientific explanations demonstrates I how scientific knowledge changes by evolving over time, almost always building on earlier knowledge.

Perspectives of science discipline or as a subject

1. In new scientific areas there is not a great deal of experimental or observational evidence and understanding, therefore it is normal for scientists to differ with one another about the interpretation of the evidence or theory being considered.
2. Different scientists might publish conflicting experimental results or might draw different conclusions from the same data. Ideally, scientists acknowledge such conflict and work towards finding evidence that will resolve their disagreement by reviewing experimental procedures, examining the evidence, identifying faulty reasoning, pointing out statements that go beyond the evidence, and suggesting alternative explanations for the same observations.
3. Although scientists may disagree about explanations of phenomena, about interpretations of data, or about the value of rival theories, they do agree that questioning, response to criticism, and open communication are integral to the process of science.
4. As scientific knowledge evolves, major disagreements are eventually resolved through such interactions between scientists.
5. Some matters (ethical and moral) cannot be examined by the scientific method.
6. When scientists encounter new experimental evidence, that does not match their existing explanations, they decide if the differences are trivial or significant with additional investigations.
7. If they decide the differences are significant they do and have changed their ideas.
8. Science involves creativity, imagination, and logical thinking to generate and test the validity of ideas.
9. Scientists formulate and test their explanations using observations, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models.
10. Most major ideas in science have much experimental and observational confirmation that is not likely to change much in the future.
11. Accepted scientific theories are powerful models for explaining past, present, and future phenomena and events.
12. The validity of an explanation being a function of the type and amount of evidence to support the theory. In new scientific areas there is not a great deal of experimental or observational evidence and understanding, therefore it is normal for scientists to differ with one another about the interpretation of the evidence or theory being considered.
13. Different scientists might publish conflicting experimental results or might draw different conclusions from the same data.
14. Ideally, scientists acknowledge such conflict and work towards finding evidence that will resolve their disagreement by reviewing experimental procedures, examining the evidence, identifying faulty reasoning, pointing out statements that go beyond the evidence, and suggesting alternative explanations for the same observations.
15. Although scientists may disagree about explanations of phenomena, about interpretations of data, or about the value of rival theories, they do agree that questioning, response to criticism, and open communication are integral to the process of science.
16. As scientific knowledge evolves, major disagreements are eventually resolved through such interactions between scientists. Some matters (ethical and moral) cannot be examined by the scientific method.
17. Science is influenced by social, cultural, political, religious, and geographical entities in which people live.
18. Science rejects authoritarianism.
19. Science seeks honest information.
20. Science is skeptical and rejects the idea of absolute truth.
21. Science rejects supernatural explanations.
22. Science seeks simplicity (Occam's Razor).
23. Science seeks consistency.

Science as a social endeavor

1. Some matters (ethical and moral) cannot be examined by the scientific method.
2. Scientists are influenced by societal, cultural, and personal beliefs and ways of viewing the world. Science is not separate from society but rather science is a part of society.
3. Science is influenced by social, cultural, political, religious, and geographical entities in which people live.
4. Science rejects authoritarianism. Science seeks honest information. Science is skeptical and rejects the idea of absolute truth.
5. Science rejects supernatural explanations.
6. Science seeks simplicity (Occam's Razor). Science seeks consistency.
7. Social needs, attitudes, and values influence the direction of technological development.
8. Science and technology have greatly improved food quality and quantity, transportation, health, sanitation, and communication.
9. These benefits of science and technology are not available to all of the people in the world.
10. Technology influences the quality of life and the ways people act and interact.
11. Technological changes are often accompanied by social, political, and economic changes that can be beneficial or detrimental to individuals and to society.
12. Scientists and engineers have ethical codes requiring that human subjects involved with research be fully informed about risks and benefits associated with the research before the individuals choose to participate.
13. This ethic extends to potential risks to communities and property.
14. In short, prior knowledge and consent are required for research involving human subjects or potential damage to property.
15. Science and technology have contributed enormously to economic growth and productivity among societies and groups within societies.
16. Scientists and engineers work in many different settings, including colleges and universities, businesses and industries, specific research institutes, and government agencies.
17. Science cannot answer all questions and technology cannot solve all human problems or meet all human needs.
18. Scientific knowledge and the procedures used by scientists influence the way many individuals in society think about themselves, others, and the environment.

Dr. Robert Sweetland's notes
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