The Importance Of The Scientific Method

710 Words2 Pages

The scientific method is not a new process in the classroom by any means. Most students were at least introduced to it at some point in elementary school. Every year it seems to get more and more complex, but the basic steps stay the same. Just like every other year of science, we started the year by discussing the scientific method. This method is so important because it forms a baseline for how all scientific discovery should be done and proved. We started using the scientific method by implementing it during the black box experiment.
The main focus during the black box experiment was on the first step of the scientific method, forming a hypothesis. A hypothesis can be simply defined as an educated guess, but it’s much more complex than that. …show more content…

They have to be testable and falsifiable. They also need to be based on observations or facts, not just randomly made. The hypothesis of, “There are no living things in any other universe” is not correct because it can’t be tested. Another incorrect hypothesis would be, “The item in the box is magical and changes shape.” This is not testable or falsifiable because of the word magic.
At the end of the black box experiment, we weren’t allowed to open the box and see once and for all if our hypotheses about the item’s shape or composition were right.
This was based on the theory that we can never be one hundred percent sure about anything in science. We could even see and touch the object, but there could still be a chance that we were wrong about what it is. Nothing is guaranteed.
The black box experiment did a good job of showing us more about the step in the scientific method about hypotheses. We had to form four hypotheses then say if we refuted any of them. It really made us test our hypotheses to the best of our ability with the limitations put on us by the box. Because of the scientific method, every scientist that did the experiment had the same structure to their work. Even though it could be different information, it would be easily interpreted and redone by anyone. This is what makes the scientific method so

Show More
Related

  • Milgram and Zimbardo: Overpowering Situations

    1031 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... no idea that the experiment was about their reactions. In Zimbardo’s the subjects knew of the simulation that would be taking place. In the end both cases proved that as Samucha explains Milgram and Zimbardo’s work demonstrates that, sometimes, the power of situations can be overpowering.

    Read More

  • What Is The Discovery Of The Cathode Ray Tube By Sir Williams Crooke

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    The cathode ray tube was invented in 1875 by the name of Sir Williams Crooke. Yet he wasn’t the one to make the big discovery. In 1897, a man by the name of J.J. Thompson conducted a series of experiments to prove the existence of subatomic particles. He wasn’t 100% correct with all of his claims he made but broke the theory John Dalton stated that the smallest form matter could be broken down to was an atom. Having shown the world that there was smaller than an atom, it later caused others to question and dive even deeper.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Opening Skinner's Box

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Opening Skinner 's Box, the author uses an assortment of imaginative scenarios in order to foster a more interesting narrative in the readers mind. In my opinion, this technique is a hit and miss, as it can alternately grasp your imagination and make the author seem very incredible. This chapter is an intriguing look at famous psychological experiments, but is overall weakened by the authors rampant imagination. When Slater describes an imaginary scene, like saying the odor in the air is of something rotting, she is plainly trying to foreshadow in her history made fictitious story. Her credibility is besmirched in her attempt to make the history more interesting, as she is preemptively trying to bias the reader. However,

    Read More

  • Bf Skinner Essay

    548 Words  | 2 Pages

    At Harvard, B.F. Skinner looked for a more objective and restrained way to study behavior. Most of his theories were based on self-observation, which influenced him to become a enthusiast for behaviorism. Much of his “self-observed” theories stemmed from Thorndike’s Puzzle Box, a direct antecedent to Skinner’s Box. He developed an “operant conditioning apparatus” to do this, which is also known as the Skinner box. The Skinner box also had a device that recorded each response provided by the animal as well as the unique schedule of reinforcement that the animal was assigned. The design of Skinner boxes can vary ...

    Read More

  • Creationism in Public School Science Class

    932 Words  | 2 Pages

    by saying that it is science is a disgrace to the scientific method. This statement was

    Read More

  • Definition, Logical Consistency, Testability And Empirical Validity Of A Theory?

    731 Words  | 2 Pages

    In addition to logical consistency, testability is an important piece when evaluating a theory. According to Akers & Sellers (2013), “a theory must be testable by objective, repeatable evidence” (p.5); thus, if the theory is not testable then it has no scientific value. There are several reasons why a theory might not be testable; such as its concepts may not be observable or reportable events and tautology. Tautology refers to a statement or hypothesis that is tr...

    Read More

  • Heart Rate Lab Report

    1142 Words  | 3 Pages

    .... All things considered, this experiment was conducted as well as it could’ve been, unavoidable errors and all. Even still, there are still things that could be discovered throughout this topic.

    Read More

  • Methods Of Induction In Induction

    535 Words  | 2 Pages

    Reasoning is used all the time, humans use evidence of someone, something or personal experiences through time to reach a logical conclusion and accept it. In science, there are two methods of reasoning in which scientist arrive with a conclusion about a specific topic and it is by induction and deduction. In the modern scientific method induction seems to be a key element, based from specific observations and experiments. On the other hand, deductive reasoning is used in the scientific method to test hypotheses and theories in which the conclusion must be logically valid. Each of these methods of reasoning make an important contribution to our understanding of the world. This essay explains the processes of induction and deduction and their role in the modern scientific method, as well as ‘Problems of induction along with Popper’s ‘solution’ to induction through falsification will be discussed due to his rejection of inductive reasoning in the scientific method.

    Read More

  • Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs by Stephen Jay Gould

    771 Words  | 2 Pages

    Any hypothesis, Gould says, begins with the collection of facts. In this early stage of a theory development bad science leads nowhere, since it contains either little or contradicting evidence. On the other hand, Gould suggests, testable proposals are accepted temporarily, furthermore, new collected facts confirm a hypothesis. That is how good science works. It is self-correcting and self-developing with the flow of time: new information improves a good theory and makes it more precise. Finally, good hypotheses create logical relations to other subjects and contribute to their expansion.

    Read More

  • Carl Hempel Explanation

    1942 Words  | 4 Pages

    However, by making the assumption that all statements are universally either “true” or “false”, he dismisses perfectly logical scientific explanations which are merely outdated. Specifically, he is saying that explanations that were previously accepted by the scientific community but are no longer due to “ampler evidence now available...was not-and had never been-a correct explanation” (138). This is simply not true, as the “correctness” of an explanation is not binary; that is, there may exist some explanations which provide partial explanations which may be perfectly accurate in some contexts, but misleading or even wrong in others. I will refer to this as the context dependency of scientific laws. A good example of such a phenomenon with more than one correct explanation is how electricity is produced. Electricity can be explained as the motion of electrons, which are subatomic particles that circulate around the nucleus of an atom. The Bohr model gives this explanation, claiming that an atom looks akin to our solar system. Recently, more accurate models like the Schroedinger model have come through to state that the Bohr model is not entirely accurate, and that the existence of electrons around atoms in certain places is based on probabilistic models. Despite this new information, the Bohr model can still be used to explain electricity and the motion of

    Read More

  • Difference Between Sociology And Social Psychology

    1274 Words  | 3 Pages

    recognized as having and hypothesis and using experiments to test them. Muzafer Sherif is recognized

    Read More

  • Defying Ethics

    754 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slater, Lauren. Opening Skinner's box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004. Print.

    Read More

  • Albert Bandura's Theory Of Behaviorism

    963 Words  | 2 Pages

    For the experiment, he was supposed to find an emotionally stable child to conduct the experiment on. According to the original report of the experiment the mother of Albert wasn’t aware the experiment was going on, and she took Albert away right after the experiment not giving Watson the opportunity to remove the conditions he put on the infant. In 2009 “Little Albert” was found to be Douglas Merritte, and in 2012 we learned new research that Douglas was claimed to be “neurologically impaired at the time of the experiment”. It is also believed that Watson was well aware of this and hid this fact from his case. This new research can heavily affect the experiment because that could mean that the experiment was somehow fixed and the result can’t be

    Read More

  • Language And Science: The Role Of Language In Science Education

    797 Words  | 2 Pages

    By incorporating NOS in science textbooks, not only we will be addressing the problem suggested by Sutton (1998), but, also, as teachers, we will be reinforcing scientific expertise needed in to develop active citizens while attaining two roles in scientific understandings that are “knowing how” science was established and “knowing that” which is constituted of facts and scientific knowledge (Bellous &Siegel, 1991). Finally, Sutton’s chapter provides a concise framework for teachers and research scholars to view science teaching and scientific knowledge from a different perspective. Such that the science content and teaching should be viewed from the scientists’ perspective to the extent that collaboration between scientific community is needed to reach such

    Read More

  • Nature Of Science

    928 Words  | 2 Pages

    When integrating Nature of Science into curriculum, assumptions are made about students and instructors. These assumptions include that students are all at the same level in terms of science understanding and concepts as the rest of their classmates, and also assumes that the students learn at the same rates (NGSS: Appendix A). These assumptions are detrimental to science education when focus needs to be on the content being taught rather than teaching background of science as a standalone. Teaching NOS explicitly becomes increasingly difficult when students aren’t given access to proper science learning environments. As mentioned in the High Hopes – Few Opportunities reading, it is stated that, “California students do no typically experience high-quality science learning opportunities[.]” (Dorph et al., 2011). When students don’t have a basis for scientific concepts, it becomes increasingly difficult to teach NOS. America’s Lab Report further expands on the idea that this style of learning is not likely achievable, as “[N]o single […] experience is likely to achieve all of these learning goals.” (Schweingruber et al., 2005) where learning goals is referencing the goals of laboratory experiences that include understanding Nature of Science. Again, when a lack of understanding for general science exists, its arguably much more difficult to teach

    Read More

More about The Importance Of The Scientific Method

Open Document