Nature of Science

Inquiry and the Nature of Science

Adapted from Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science. National Academy of Science: http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/evolution98/evol6-a.html

This activity introduces basic procedures involved in inquiry and concepts describing the nature of science. In this activity the teacher uses a 3-dimensional cube to involve students in asking a question-what is on the bottom?- and the students propose an explanation based on their observations.

Materials and Equipment: 1 cube for each small group (black-line masters), 10 small probes such as tongue depressors or pencils, 10 small pocket mirrors.

Goals and Objectives
According to the National Science Education Standards, it enables students to:
· identify questions that can be answered through scientific investigations,
· design and conduct a scientific investigation,
· use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data,
· develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence,
· think critically and logically to make relationships between evidence and explanations,
· recognize and analyze alternative explanations and predictions, and
· communicate scientific procedures and explanations by making presentations.

This activity also implements the following concepts:
· Technology used to gather data enhances accuracy and allows scientists to analyze and quantify results of investigations.
· Scientific explanations emphasize evidence, have logically consistent arguments, and use scientific principles, models, and theories.
· 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.

Instructional Strategy
Engage - Begin by asking the class to tell you what they know about how scientists do their work. How would they describe a scientific investigation? Get students thinking about the process of scientific inquiry and the nature of science. This is also an opportunity for you to assess their current understanding of science. Accept student answers and record key ideas on the overhead or chalkboard.

How to make cube: Go to web,copy 1 blank cube and cut it out. On one side I drew a circle, placed a 1 in the top left corner and the capital letters DN in bottom right corner. On the opposite side, I drew an image of the DNA double helix, placed the prime number 3 in the top left corner and the capital letters DN in bottom right corner. On the next side I drew a simple drawing of a male, placed the prime number 5 in the top left corner and the capital letters MA in the bottom right corner. On the opposite side, I drew the male symbol (circle with an arrow off upper right side), placed the prime number 7 in the top left corner and the capital letters MA in the bottom right corner. On one of the remaining sides I drew a simple drawing of a female, placed the prime number 11 in the top left corner and the capital letters FE in the bottom right corner. On the opposite side of this I drew the female symbol (circle with a cross on bottom), placed the prime number 13 in the top left corner and the capital letters FE in the bottom right corner.

Explore - Place the cubes in the center of the table where each small group is working. The students should not touch, turn, lift, or open the cube. Tell the students they have to identify a question associated with the cube. Allow the students to state their questions. Likely questions include:
· What is in the cube?
· What is on the bottom of the cube?
You should direct students to the general question, what is on the bottom of the cube? Tell the students that they will have to answer the question by proposing an explanation, and that they will have to convince you and other students that their answer is based on evidence. (Evidence refers to observations the group can make about the visible sides of the cube.) Allow the students time to explore the cube and to develop answers to their question.

Ask the students to use their observations (the data) to propose an answer. Let students collaborate to identify and organize their observations. Students should present their reasoning for this conclusion.

Explain - Use this opportunity to have the students develop the idea that combining two different but logically related observations creates a stronger explanation. Explain that scientists often are uncertain about their proposed answers, and often have no way of knowing the absolute answer to a scientific question. Examples such as the exact ages of stars and the reasons for the extinction of prehistoric organisms will support the point. You could introduce the "story" of an actual scientific discovery.

Tieing ends together - Explain how the activity simulates scientific inquiry and provides a model for science. Here are some connections between their experiences with the cube and science:

· Science uses observations to construct explanations (answers to the questions). The more observations you had that supported your proposed explanation, the stronger your explanation, even if you could not confirm the answer by examining the bottom of the cube.

· Scientists make their explanations public through presentations at professional meetings and journals.

· Scientists present their explanations and critique the explanations proposed by other scientists.

Ask Your Students:
Why might it be important how you communicate your observations or conclusions to others?

If you were coming from a totally different culture, how might your observations and results be different?

Science Background for Teachers
The pursuit of scientific explanations often begins with a question about a natural phenomenon. Science is a way of developing answers, or improving explanations, for observations or events in the natural world. The scientific question emerges from curiosity. Once the question is asked, a process of scientific inquiry begins, and there eventually may be an answer or a proposed explanation. Critical aspects of science include the freedom to pursue that curiosity.
Other attitudes and habits of mind that characterize scientific inquiry and the activities of scientists include intelligence, honesty, skepticism, tolerance for ambiguity, openness to new knowledge, and the willingness to share knowledge publicly.
Scientific explanations are more than the results of collecting and organizing data. Scientists also engage in important processes such as constructing laws, elaborating models, and developing hypotheses based on data. These processes extend, clarify, and unite the observations and data and, very importantly, develop deeper and broader explanations. Examples include the taxonomy of organisms, the periodic table of the elements, and theories of common descent and natural selection.
One characteristic of science is that many explanations continually change. Two types of changes occur in scientific explanations: new explanations are developed, and old explanations are modified.
Just because someone asks a question about an object, organism, or event in nature does not necessarily mean that person is pursuing a scientific explanation. Among the conditions that must be met to make explanations scientific are the following:
· Scientific explanations are based on empirical observations or experiments. The appeal to authority as a valid explanation does not meet the requirements of science. Observations are based on sense experiences or on an extension of the senses through technology.
· Scientific explanations are made public. Scientists make presentations at scientific meetings or publish in professional journals, making knowledge public and available to other scientists.
· Scientific explanations are tentative. Explanations can and do change. There are no scientific truths in an absolute sense.
· Scientific explanations are historical. Past explanations are the basis for contemporary explanations, and those, in turn, are the basis for future explanations.
· Scientific explanations are probabilistic. The statistical view of nature is evident implicitly or explicitly when stating scientific predictions of phenomena or explaining the likelihood of events in actual situations.
· Scientific explanations assume cause-effect relationships. Much of science is directed toward determining causal relationships and developing explanations for interactions and linkages between objects, organisms, and events. Distinctions among causality, correlation, coincidence, and contingency separate science from pseudoscience.
· Scientific explanations are limited. Scientific explanations sometimes are limited by technology, for example, the resolving power of microscopes and telescopes. New technologies can result in new fields of inquiry or extend current areas of study. The interactions between technology and advances in molecular biology and the role of technology in planetary explorations serve as examples.
Science cannot answer all questions. Some questions are simply beyond the parameters of science. Many questions involving the meaning of life, ethics, and theology are examples of questions that science cannot answer. Refer to the National Science Education Standards for Science as Inquiry (pages 145-148 for grades 5-8 and pages 175-176 for grades 9-12), History and Nature of Science Standards (pages 170-171 for grades 5-8 and pages 200-204 for grades 9-12), and Unifying Concepts and Processes (pages 116-118). Chapter 3 of this document also contains a discussion of the nature of science.