1. What is Science?

Question

2. Why can’t scientific questions be opinion based?

3. Describe the steps of the Scientific Method. Is this process linear or cyclical? Why?

4. What is pseudoscience? What are the characteristics of pseudoscience?

5. What is anecdotal evidence and how is it used?

6. What factors should you examine when evaluating the reliability of information in sources?

7. How do scientists use creativity to construct and answer scientific questions?

8. What is the greatest advantage of using different methods that result in the same outcome?

9. What does the phrase “science is durable” mean? How does repetition and replication help with the durability of science?

10. Describe the similarities and differences between scientific theories and laws. Give an example of each.

11. Describe the theory of evolution/natural selection

12. Explain why scientific collaboration is important to research.

13. Define a fact, observation, and inference and give an example of each. (Be able to identify all 3 from an example.)

1 sentence for questions 1-12

Answer 1

1. Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.

2. Scientific questions cannot be opinion-based because they must be testable and falsifiable through observation and experimentation.

3. The steps of the Scientific Method include observation, hypothesis, experimentation, analysis, and conclusion, and this process is generally cyclical because scientists often revisit and refine previous steps based on new findings.

4. Pseudoscience refers to beliefs or practices that claim to be scientific but lack empirical support and adhere to unscientific methodologies, characterized by a reliance on anecdotal evidence, lack of peer review, and a refusal to be falsified.

5. Anecdotal evidence is personal testimonies or individual stories used to support claims, which can be misleading as they do not provide a reliable basis for scientific conclusions.

6. When evaluating the reliability of information in sources, one should examine the credentials of the author, the citation of reputable sources, the presence of peer review, the publication date, and potential biases.

7. Scientists use creativity to construct and answer scientific questions by thinking outside the box, designing innovative experiments, and developing novel hypotheses that challenge existing paradigms.

8. The greatest advantage of using different methods that yield the same outcome is that it strengthens the validity of the findings, indicating that results are robust and not dependent on a single approach.

9. The phrase “science is durable” means that scientific knowledge persists over time, and repetition and replication contribute to this durability by reinforcing findings and confirming their reliability across different contexts and methodologies.

10. Scientific theories are comprehensive explanations of phenomena based on extensive evidence (e.g., the theory of gravity), while laws are concise descriptions of observed phenomena (e.g., Newton's laws of motion), with theories explaining how or why while laws describe what happens.

11. The theory of evolution by natural selection posits that organisms adapt to their environments over generations through the differential survival and reproduction of individuals with advantageous traits.

12. Scientific collaboration is important to research because it combines diverse expertise, fosters innovation, enhances the quality of research, and accelerates the discovery process through shared resources and ideas.

13. A fact is a confirmed observation (e.g., water boils at 100°C at sea level), an observation is something seen or measured (e.g., the temperature of the water is 100°C), and an inference is a conclusion drawn from observations (e.g., the water is boiling).