INTRODUCTIONEach quarter, CBE—Life Sciences Education calls attention to several Web sites of educational interest to the life science community. The journal does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information at any of the listed sites. If you want to comment on the selections or suggest future inclusions, please send a message to ude.ytinirt@notsylbr. The sites listed below were last accessed on 1 December 2005. Show The topic selection of the scientific method for this quarter's column was prompted in part by the recent revision of the K–12 science education standards by the Kansas State Board of Education on November 8, 2005 (Figure 1). http://www.ksbe.state.ks.us/Welcome.html Kansas State Board of Education. Many have interpreted the November actions of the Kansas State Board of Education as allowing the teaching of “intelligent design” as an alternative to biological evolution. One may download the science standards advocated by the Board from the aforementioned Web site. A portion of their rationale for change is presented below.
As the debate about the actions of the Kansas State Board of Education continues, the role of the scientific method in the process of science requires clarification for many. The scientific method is the principal methodology by which biological knowledge is gained and disseminated. As fundamental as the scientific method may be, its historical development is poorly understood, its definition is variable, and its deployment is uneven. Scientific progress may occur without the strictures imposed by the formal application of the scientific method. This report explores Web resources that get at the definition, history, and use of the scientific method. A good place to begin this odyssey is with the organization known as Science Service. Science Service, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization, is best known as the publisher of Science News and as the organizer of the International Science and Engineering Fair. In its promotion of high school science, Science Service provides a Web page describing the scientific method (Figure 2). http://www.sciserv.org/isef/primer/scientific_method.asp One may find a carefully worded description of the scientific method consisting of the following steps: problem/purpose, hypothesis, procedure, materials, observation/data/results, analysis, and conclusion. Most would agree that this recounting of the scientific method would be appropriate for a budding young scientist, especially one who is preparing a science fair project. This organization developed by three Missouri agencies (University of Missouri, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and the Missouri Department of Higher Education) advocates the following: “eMINTs changes how teachers teach and students learn. Its instructional model provides a research-based approach to organizing instruction and can be implemented in any subject area at any level.” eMINTS provides a page dealing with the scientific method. http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00000408.shtml Science Fair Central provides a five-step explanation for the scientific method: research, problem, hypothesis, project experimentation, and project conclusion. The material is derived from Janice VanCleave's Guide to the Best Science Fair Projects, a John Wiley & Sons (New York) publication. Each of the three Web sites listed above provides a traditional and generally accepted view of the scientific method, as it would be found in support of classroom activities. Most people agree that to understand science, one must do science. The argument continues that to do science, one must use the scientific method as though it were a form of catechism with heavy emphasis on the steps used by the scientific method. For an example of placing emphasis on the steps to the method, please visit the following Web site (Figure 5): http://teacher.nsrl.rochester.edu/phy_labs/AppendixE/AppendixE.html Frank Wolfs' introduction to the scientific method. Dr. Frank Wolfs in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester (Rochester, NY) provides a scientific method appendix to the laboratory manuals associated with the introductory college physics courses at Rochester. He, as do many of his science colleagues, states that the scientific method has four steps: 1) observation and description of a phenomenon or group of phenomena; 2) formulation of a hypothesis to explain the phenomena (in physics, the hypothesis often takes the form of a causal mechanism or a mathematical relation); 3) use of the hypothesis to predict the existence of other phenomena or to predict quantitatively the results of new observations; and 4) performance of experimental tests of the predictions by several independent experimenters and properly performed experiments. The laboratory manual for my embryology or histology course could have a similar type of statement. As we lead our students into the forest of doing science, we codify the process as requiring prescribed steps, and, like bread crumbs, these steps are to be followed through the forest. This teaching practice causes people to view science as formulaic and perhaps less of a creative process than it really is. This tendency to make the process pedantic is exemplified by the information at the following Web site (Figure 6): http://www.ldolphin.org/SciMeth2.html Lambert Dolphin's steps in the scientific method. Lambert Dolphin of Palo Alto, CA, lays out the scientific method in a flowchart manner. Dolphin also mixes this depiction of scientific methodology with a discussion of personal philosophy and religion. Norman W. Edmund's idea of the scientific method. Norman W. Edmund is the founder of the well-known Edmund Scientific (Tonawanda, NY), a mail-order company for science supplies. His company has been sold and incorporated into a new company called Scientifics. Edmund considers the scientific method “the greatest idea of all times.” He defines the scientific method as follows: “The term `the scientific method' represents the general pattern of the types of mental activity stages (usually aided by physical activities) that occur in the master method, which we use to obtain, refine, extend and apply knowledge in all fields.” The Science Service and eMINTS' use of the term scientific method would be generally accepted in science education fields. Dolphin and Edmund's use would be problematic for many. And in common practice as represented by the physics laboratory manuals, the scientific method is presented as a rigid process that is followed as though it were a religious doctrine. These practices lead us back to the Kansas Board of Education: “secular, neutral, and nonideological.” At this juncture, it is time to visit Charles Darwin. Dr. Ian C. Johnston of the Department of Liberal Studies at Malaspina University-College (Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada) has prepared a handbook for liberal arts students exploring the history of science. He gives his interpretations into the origins of evolutionary theory and in doing so provides insights into the scientific method (Figure 8). http://www.mala.bc.ca/%7Ejohnstoi/darwin/sect3.htm Ian C. Johnston's interpretations of the origins of evolutionary theory.
Johnston reminds us that the scientific method has evolved over a period of time and that the lengthy gap between Darwin's Beagle trip and the publication of the Origin of Species had to do with the limitations in the methodology of doing science at that time. Finding both irony and humor in Darwin contributing to the evolution of the scientific method, we turned to Google (htpp://www.google.com) to search for a history of the scientific method. Michael James' essay on the history of the scientific method. James is a graduate student in the human geography department at the Open University in England. He concludes his essay with the following thought: “For every individual, science acquires systematic knowledge of the truth and laws of natural or physical phenomena that govern the world. Science classifies by definite rules. To be `scientific' is to agree with, and be well instructed in the principles of science. The manner of proceeding to an end, by orderly means, is `method'. The appearance that the use of scientific method is simply logical can be misleading, there is no more complex question of how we arrive at our thoughts.” It seems James would argue that the flow chart showing the scientific method does not cover the thinking involved in the process. Wikipedia's entry on Karl Popper. Francis Bacon, a contemporary of Shakespeare, developed a method of scientific reasoning and investigation that was widely adhered to for several centuries. Johnston (above) alludes to Darwin having to deal with the Baconian method. Karl Popper developed the hypothetico-deductive method in the twentieth century and its practice involves falsification of the hypothesis. It is the falsification idea that contributes greatly to today's misunderstanding of what science is, and how the modern version of the scientific method is used. The issue of falsification is also where the Kansas Board of Education enters Dante's Divine Comedy and descends into the inferno. The Board's objective one is “to help students understand the full range of scientific views that exist on this topic.” How many science teachers or scientists know of the Vienna Circle of science philosophers of the 1920s? These individuals developed a view of analytical philosophy including logical positivism. Karl Popper led the revolt against logical positivism set forth by the Vienna Circle. How many understand the idea of confirmation holism where a falsification of hypothesis can be undone? Who among the proponents and detractors of evolutionary theory have read Lakatos and Feyerabend's modification of Popperian ideas? The Kansas Board of Education wants “to enhance critical thinking and the understanding of the scientific method.” A place to start is at the intersection of the philosophy of science and the scientific method, and Wikipedia would make a fine first step (Figure 11). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Scientific_method A comparison of Popper's, Kuhn's, and Feyerabend's ideas about scientific theories. The scientific method has evolved. The scientific method also has critics. One place that records criticism is the Web site known as the Science Hobbyist. William J. Beaty, an electrical engineer in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Washington (Seattle, WA) hosts this site. He has a page on the site that is titled “Ten Myths of Science: Reexamining What We Think We Know...” (Figure 12). http://www.amasci.com/miscon/myths10.html Ten myths of science: reexamining what we think we know. McComas provides an argument that “A General and Universal Scientific Method Exists” is a myth.
An unusual place to find a discourse on the scientific method is Dharma-Haven, a site that deals with Tibetan medicine and western science. Dr. Terry Halwes of New Haven, CT, operates the site, and he posts a variety of interesting essays. One of them deals with the myth of the scientific method (Figure 13). http://dharma-haven.org/science/myth-of-scientificmethod.htm The myth of the scientific method. Halwes argues the following: “The procedure that gets taught as `The Scientific Method' is entirely misleading. Studying what scientists actually do is far more interesting. “The site is extensive and rambling at times; however, it does pose interesting observations.
The scientific revolution: an introduction to the history and philosophy of science. Schuster's Chapter 9 is delightful and needs to be read in its entirety. The following two excerpts give the flavor of his arguments:
All of the above leads to the third objective of the Kansas Board of Education: “to ensure that science education in our state is `secular, neutral, and nonideological.'” Is the process of science about making choices? This experiment is correct. This experiment is wrong. This conclusion is correct. This conclusion is wrong. Based on these choices, science moves forward. If science education is to be “neutral,” then one cannot make choices. One cannot act on the results of tested hypotheses. To act means that one can no longer be neutral. A definition of ideology is “the ideas and manner of thinking characteristic of a group, social class, or individual.” To have no ideology suggests that the group has no ideas or manner of thinking. One might assume the Kansas Board of Education would like science to have no manner of thinking, no scientific method as it were, for to have a method is an expression of ideology. If scientists agree on a particular natural phenomenon, is it ideological to agree with this “theory” and act upon it? Focusing on the scientific method, is it prescriptive or descriptive? Of course, the answer is yes and no. It describes a process by which science can be done. And yet, many valid experiments in science today are not hypothesis driven. If an experiment is not hypothesis driven, is it following the scientific method? Can science be performed only through steps associated with the scientific method? In a sense then, the method is being treated as prescriptive. If science is the baby, is the scientific method the bathwater? If we throw out the bathwater, do we run too great a risk of losing the baby? The scientific method is a convenient way to introduce students to the process of science. It is an approximation. As the student matures, how we teach what constitutes the scientific method should mature as well to include less black-and-white and more gray. We trust this brief review of Web resources on the topic of the scientific method will help your students gain a better understanding of the process of science and its relationship to its philosophy. What are the steps of scientific knowledge?Here are the five steps.. Define a Question to Investigate. As scientists conduct their research, they make observations and collect data. ... . Make Predictions. Based on their research and observations, scientists will often come up with a hypothesis. ... . Gather Data. ... . Analyze the Data. ... . Draw Conclusions.. What is a step in the scientific process?The six steps of the scientific method include: 1) asking a question about something you observe, 2) doing background research to learn what is already known about the topic, 3) constructing a hypothesis, 4) experimenting to test the hypothesis, 5) analyzing the data from the experiment and drawing conclusions, and 6) ...
What is the name of the process by which we obtain scientific knowledge?Scientific knowledge is advanced through a process known as the scientific method. Basically, ideas (in the form of theories and hypotheses) are tested against the real world (in the form of empirical observations), and those empirical observations lead to more ideas that are tested against the real world, and so on.
What is a series of steps used by scientists?Scientific methods. What is the series of steps scientists use to answer questions and solve problems? Question, hypothesis, test hypothesis (experiment), analyze data, conclusion, communicate results.
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