CHAPTER 1

The Nature of Science

“Science is the most powerful way of knowing. Through

science we push back the curtains of ignorance and reveal the
deepest secrets of nature. And implicit in this is that through
science, as we acquire more and more knowledge, life will get better
for people.” –David Suzuki Picture Not Mine. Credits to the owner.

Intended Learning Outcome (ILO):

Pre-service Teachers must have demonstrated understanding on the nature of science --- the
scientific enterprise, products, applications and attitudes --- and what this looks like in the primary
classroom (BTI 1.1.1; 1.2.1)

Preparation
Chapter 1 dwells on The Nature of Science. It is important to clarify what it
is about the nature of science that we want our learners to understand. We can
begin by asking ourselves: what is science?

Introductory Activity: Through a PADLET App share your views on “What is

Science? How is Science a part of your lives?”

Presentation
Videoclip: The Nature of Science
http://youtube.com/watch?v=77TFiYWPxoQ

What is science?

The word "science" probably brings to mind many different pictures: a fat textbook, white lab coats and
microscopes, an astronomer peering through a telescope, a naturalist in the rainforest, Einstein's
equations scribbled on a chalkboard, the launch of the space shuttle, bubbling beakers …. All of those
images reflect some aspect of science, but none of them provides a full picture because science has so
many facets:

 Science is both a body of knowledge and a process. In school, science may sometimes
seem like a collection of isolated and static facts listed in a textbook, but that's only a small part
of the story. Just as importantly, science is also a process of discovery that allows us to link
isolated facts into coherent and comprehensive understandings of the natural world.
 Science is exciting. Science is a way of discovering what's in the universe and how those
things work today, how they worked in the past, and how they are likely to work in the future.
Scientists are motivated by the thrill of seeing or figuring out something that no one has before.
 Science is useful. The knowledge generated by science is powerful and reliable. It can be used
to develop new technologies, treat diseases, and deal with many other sorts of problems.
 Science is ongoing. Science is continually refining and expanding our knowledge of the
universe, and as it does, it leads to new questions for future investigation. Science will never be
"finished."
 Science is a global human endeavor. People all over the world participate in the process of
science. And you can too!

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 Science asks questions about the natural world
Science studies the natural world. This includes the components of
the physical universe around us like atoms, plants, ecosystems,
people, societies and galaxies, as well as the natural forces at
work on those things. In contrast, science cannot
study supernatural forces and explanations. For example, the idea
that a supernatural afterlife exists is not a part of science since this
afterlife operates outside the rules that govern the natural world

A Scientific Worldview!
Having a scientific worldview is being able to realize and appreciate that science
is always changing. It is however, hard for students to understand that it is a subject
that is going to change throughout their education and their lives. It is imperative that
we educators teach them to appreciate the concrete aspect and findings in science that
will never change. For example, how matter is formed. Yet, it is also imperative that we
teach them to become willing to expand their knowledge of science when science
changes.
As an educator during this time you should be encouraging your students to become interested in
science. You can promote scientific experiences and focus on consistency. Repeating experiments in
different environments helps the students understand how basic science operates.
3rd-5th: You should be focusing on more of a hands on approach during scientific experiments. Allow
them to see that sometimes scientific experiments produces different outcomes.
6th-8th: At this point in education, the students should be able to explain the inconsistencies in nature
and science. They should understand that just as time changes, so does scientific findings and theories.
Scientific Inquiry!
Scientific Inquiry is allowing the students to be able to explore science and scientific experiments
in their own individual ways. Allowing the students to become hands on learners during scientific
experiments will help them further learn and understand science. Forcing them to follow a step by step
worksheet will only bore the students. However, you can promote active learning by providing your
students beacons, thermometers, scales, microscopes, and so. Students no longer learn through lecture,
buy through scientific discourse and personal experience.
Students should be actively engaging in hands on scientific investigations. Teaching them to talk
about their findings in these grades will prepare them for a more sophisticated scientific discourse in
later grades.
Students should be utilizing scientific tools at this point in their education. They should be
continually progressing with their scientific discourse. Also, by utilizing the scientific tools, they should
start explaining the different outcomes in different experiments.
6th-8th: In this stage students should be using their scientific discourse on a higher sophisticated level.
They should also fully understand how variables affect the outcome in an experiment. Also, they can be
introduced in scientific methods and theories.

The Scientific Enterprise:

Science is a living subject. Just as it is around us every day, it is being discussed every day.
People will take part in scientific discourse in the newspaper, magazines, online articles, and be aired on
the nightly news. It is our job as educators to prepare our students to have the ability to understand and
take part of this sophisticated discourse. We do not want our students to grow up with an ignorant
sense of the scientific enterprise. We as educator want them to be able to become people who impact
the social media because of their ability to be open to new knowledge.
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THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

There are basic methods of gaining knowledge that are common

to all of science. At the heart of science is the scientific investigation,
which is done by following the scientific method. A scientific
investigation is a plan for asking questions and testing possible answers.
It generally follows the steps listed in the Figure below. See
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcavPAFiG14& for an overview of
the scientific method.

Making Observations
A scientific investigation typically begins with observations. You make observations all the time.
Let’s say you take a walk in the woods and observe a moth resting on a tree trunk. You notice that the
moth has spots on its wings that look like eyes. You think the eye spots make the moth look like the face
of an owl.

Asking a Question
Observations often lead to questions. For example, you might ask yourself why the moth has eye
spots that make it look like an owl’s face. What reason might there be for this observation?

Forming a Hypothesis
The next step in a scientific investigation is forming a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a possible
answer to a scientific question, but it isn’t just any answer. A hypothesis must be based on scientific
knowledge, and it must be logical. A hypothesis also must be falsifiable. In other words, it must be
possible to make observations that would disprove the hypothesis if it really is false. Assume you know

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that some birds eat moths and that owls prey on other birds. From this knowledge, you reason that eye
spots scare away birds that might eat the moth. This is your hypothesis.

Testing the Hypothesis

To test a hypothesis, you first need to make a prediction based on the hypothesis. A prediction is
a statement that tells what will happen under certain conditions. It can be expressed in the form: If A
occurs, then B will happen. Based on your hypothesis, you might make this prediction: If a moth has eye
spots on its wings, then birds will avoid eating it. Next, you must gather evidence to test your prediction.
Evidence is any type of data that may either agree or disagree with a prediction, so it may either support
or disprove a hypothesis. Assume that you gather evidence by making more observations of moths with
eye spots. Perhaps you observe that birds really do avoid eating the moths. This evidence agrees with
your prediction.

Drawing Conclusions
Evidence that agrees with your prediction supports your hypothesis. Does such evidence prove
that your hypothesis is true? No; a hypothesis cannot be proven conclusively to be true. This is because
you can never examine all of the possible evidence, and someday evidence might be found that
disproves or refutes the hypothesis. Nonetheless, the more evidence that supports a hypothesis, the
more likely the hypothesis is to be true.

Communicating Results
The last step in a scientific investigation is communicating what you have learned with others.
This is a very important step because it allows others to test your hypothesis. If other researchers get
the same results as yours, they add support to the hypothesis. However, if they get different results,
they may disprove the hypothesis. When scientists share their results, they should describe their
methods and point out any possible problems with the investigation. For example, while you were
observing moths, perhaps your presence scared birds away. This introduces an error into your
investigation. You got the results you predicted (the birds avoided the moths while you were observing
20 of them), but not for the reason you hypothesized. Other researchers might be able to think of ways
to avoid this error in future studies.

EXPERIMENTS

An experiment is a special type of scientific investigation that is performed under

controlled conditions, usually in a laboratory. Some experiments can be very simple, but even
the simplest contributed important evidence that helped scientists better understand the natural
world.
Variables. An experiment generally tests how one variable is affected by another. The affected
variable is called the dependent variable. In the plant experiment shown above, the dependent variable
is plant growth. The variable that affects the dependent variable is called the independent variable. In
the plant experiment, the independent variable is fertilizer—some plants will get fertilizer, others will not.
In any experiment, other factors that might affect the dependent variable must be controlled. In the
plant experiment, what factors do you think should be controlled? (Hint: What other factors might affect
plant growth?)

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