REVIEW QUESTIONS

Science and Technology and Society

 GOAL OF SCIENCE

• UNDERSTANDING

 Phenomena: things that happen in the world

 Identify relationships and characteristics

 Predict summaries &

conclusions

 Derive knowledge & facts

 RESEARCH KNOWLEDGE

• A mini hypothesis, subject to testing by repeated observations

• Perception of fact varies - > doesn’t easily get accepted

• Some facts become dominant but others are open

•

to testing

• A mini hypothesis, subject to testing by repeated observations

 HYPOTHESIS

• An explanation for the pattern created by two of more facts

 Based on observation

 Has predictive value

 Testable, open to being proven wrong
 TRUE OR
FALSE

NO amount of data will

prove a hypothesis to be
true! They only fail to
disprove it.
 GOOD SCIENCE

• Eliminates as many variables

while entertaining as many
alternate interpretations of the
observations as possible.
 CATEGORIES OF
SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION

• Observational Investigation
• “What have we here?”
• Controlled what-if Experiment
• “I wonder what will happen if…?”
• Explanation-seeking experiment
• “What caused it to do that?”
Modeling what- if experiment
• “If I understand things correctly, I can predict how this thing will handle under
different circumstances.”
Problem-solving what-if Experiment.
• “I do not care how you do it, JUST FIX It.”
CHARACTERISTICS
OF A GOOD
METHOD

 Verifiable and repeatable

 •Controlled but unbiased
 •Narrowed but flexible
 •Accurate and precise
 •Deductive and inductive
 •Useful and significant
 SPOTTING PSEUDO
SCIENCE

• Repeated reference to authority rather than

primary observation
• Unwillingness to admit ignorance or
exceptions
• Unwillingness to try to disprove own
hypothesis or to seek contradictory examples
• Consistent presentation of hypothesis in a
simplistic manner
• Failure to add new arguments and data with
time