Biology Partnership
(A Teacher Quality Grant)
Nature of Science
Jill Hansen
Tammy Stundon
June 11, 2012
Gulf Coast State College
Panhandle Area Educational Consortium
5230 West Highway 98
753 West Boulevard
Panama City, Florida 32401
Chipley, Florida 32428
850-769-1551
877-873-7232
www.gulfcoast.edu
Pre-test
Q and A board
Bell Ringer
Science Knowledge Survey
Florida Next Generation
Sunshine State Standards
• SC.912.N.1.1 – define a problem based on a specific body of
knowledge, for example: biology, chemistry, physics, and
earth/space science and do the following:
– Pose questions
- conduct observations
– Review evidence
- plan investigations
– Pose answers/explanations
- examine known resources
- use tools to gather info
- communicate results
Also Assesses:
SC.912.N.1.4 – Identify sources of info
SC.912.N.1.6 – scientific inferences
SC. 912.L.14.4 – microscopes
and various language/math standards on communication &
analysis
Florida Next Generation
Sunshine State Standards
Clarifications:
• Students will design a scientific investigation using evident of
scientific thinking.
• Students will interpret and analyze data to make predictions
and/or defend conclusions
• Students will compare/contrast the structure/function of a
microscope (compound, dissecting, scanning electron)
• Students will evaluate the merits of scientific explanations
produced by others
• Students will assess the reliability of sources of info
• Student will describe how scientific inferences are made from
observations and identify examples from biology
Prior knowledge: lot of standards from 6th – 8th grades
Florida Next Generation
Sunshine State Standards
• SC.912.N.3.4 – recognize that theories do not become laws, nor
do laws become theories; theories are well supported
explanations and laws are well supported descriptions
Includes standards: N.1.3-4, N.1.6.7, N.2.1-2, N.3.1, N.3.4
Content limits: Items assessing scientific claim, the development
of a theory, or the difference between theories and laws are
limited to the cell theory
Cognitive complexity: Moderate
Florida Next Generation
Sunshine State Standards
Clarifications:
• Students will describe how continuous investigations and/or new
scientific information influenced the development of the cell
theory.
• Students will identify ways in which a scientific claim is
evaluated (e.g., through scientific argumentation, critical and
logical thinking, and consideration of alternative explanation)
• Students will identify what is science, what is not science, and
what resembles but fails to meet the criteria for science.
• Students will explain the development of a theory.
• Students will recognize the difference between theories and laws
Florida Next Generation
Sunshine State Standards
Some of the other standards included:
SC.912.N.1.3 Recognize that the strength or usefulness of a scientific claim is
evaluated through scientific argumentation, which depends on critical and
logical thinking, and the active consideration of alternative scientific
explanations to explain the data presented.
SC.912.N.2.1 Identify what is science, what clearly is not science, and what
superficially resembles science (but fails to meet the criteria for science).
SC.912.N.3.1 Explain that a scientific theory is the culmination of many scientific
investigations drawing together all the current evidence concerning a
substantial range of phenomena; thus, a scientific theory represents the most
powerful explanation scientists have to offer.
Our Approach
• This summer we are going over topics as if school is just beginning
• The first few days of class are usually some housekeeping issues,
getting to know your kids, lab safety, reviewing Latin terms in class,
microscopes, and discussing lab reports. We will include such
activities throughout this summer session when time allows.
Today…..
• How to introduce the topic
• Setting the foundation
• Scientific method
• Science Inquiry Model and Argumentative Driven
Inquiry
• Note that these standards transcends throughout
the entire course
THINK about the
Nature of Science Activity
• Students are an important active participate
in the learning process
• Students need to realize that science is
dynamic, hands-on, and changes as our
knowledge of the world increases
• Directions:
There are NONE!
THINK about the
Nature of Science Activity
• New information given……
• In groups brainstorm and share how this
activity is similar to “doing” science
JANE GOODALL & DIAN FOSSEY
CURIOSITY STARTED IT ALL
IT ALL STARTS WITH CURIOSITY
Questions all around
you…. Is Global
Warming, do diet pills
work, etc
• FALSE CLAIMS------BUYER BEWARE !!!!!
Question the
claims on
packages
- How do you
know it wards
off colds?
So how do we ensure what we find
out is sound, not made up, and
is supported?
Scientific Method!
Testable
Repeatable
Quantifiable
Through the scientific method we gain empirical knowledge
that is not only repeatable, testable but rational as well.
Why is it important to have “biological
literacy” – look at what is in the news!
Pros/cons?
- Pavlov’s Dog
RATS SUPERSTITIOUS BEHAVIOR
Absence of the Scientific Method!
HUMAN SUPERSTITIOUS BEHAVIOR
Absence of the Scientific Method!
Others?
HOW DO WE USE THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
It relies on rational testable and
repeatable observations
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
You will find variations in every textbook and teacher stressing different area.
The test gives the scientific method its validity. The steps are “self-correcting.”
The steps do not have to be in order. What does this mean?
Steps:
1. Observations and develop a question
2. Hypothesis
3. Develop a DETAILED procedure (PB & J!)
4. Gather materials
5. Experimentation
6. Data results
7. Conclusion
Steps:
1. Observations and develop a question
2. Hypothesis
• Definition (and this is my personal one)
- educated STATEMENT
- testable
- has the possibility to be true.
- can be an IF……THEN statement
• Null versus True Hypothesis
3. Develop a DETAILED procedure
- Very important that your experiments can be repeated. Why?
4. Gather materials
5. Experiment:
- variables – test only one at a time
- Independent and dependent variables
- Independent – the variable that is varied or manipulated by the researcher
- Dependent – the response to the independent
-
Control group versus experimental group
- Must have data to compare the experimental data go; makes your findings
more precise and not just accurate
-
Lab versus field experiment
6. Data – MATH
- Data tables, graphs – no interpretations
7. Draw conclusions and make revisions
- Interpretation of data.
- Was your hypothesis correct?
- What did you learn in the process?
- Is it ok if everything went wrong?
- What would you have done different?
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
STEP 1
Make
observations.
STEP 2
Formulate a
hypothesis.
STEP 3
Devise
a testable
prediction.
STEP 4
Conduct
a critical
experiment.
STEP 5
Draw
conclusions
and make
revisions.
 The scientific method rarely proceeds in a straight
line. Conclusions, for example, often lead to new
observations and refined hypotheses.
Termite Activity
Then Break!
Bell Ringer
Obtaining reliable data is a must!
• Getting the data
Why we must have an experiment with data…….
Why we can’t use correlations to make conclusion.….
• RELIABILITY OF
EYEWITNESS
TESTIMONY—
you can’t always
believe what you
see.
awareness clip
STEP 1 STEP 2
STEP 3 STEP 4
STEP 5
STEP 1: MAKE OBSERVATIONS
OBSERVATION:
To many people, consuming
Echinacea extract seems to reduce
the intensity or duration of
symptoms of the common cold.
STEP 1
STEP 2
STEP 3
STEP 4
STEP 5
STEP 2: FORMULATE A HYPOTHESIS
HYPOTHESIS:
Echinacea reduces the
duration and severity of the
common cold.
What would the Null Hypothesis be?
STEP 1
STEP 2
STEP 3
STEP 4
STEP 5
STEP 3: DEVISE A TESTABLE PREDICTION
Individuals
treated with
echinacea.
Individuals not
treated with
echinacea.
PREDICTION:
If Echinacea reduces the duration and the severity of symptoms of the common cold, then:
• Individuals taking Echinacea should get sick less frequently than those not taking it.
• Individuals who get sick should recover more quickly.
STEP 1
STEP 2
STEP 3
STEP 4
STEP 5
STEP 4: CONDUCT A CRITICAL EXPERIMENT
EXPERIMENTAL GROUP
Researchers randomly divided 437 volunteers into four groups to test the
effect of Echinacea on the common cold.
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
EXPERIMENTAL GROUP
Researchers randomly divided 437 volunteers into four groups
to test the effect of Echinacea on the common cold.
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
TREATMENT (BEFORE EXPOSURE)
No treatment
One placebo
tablet daily
One Echinacea
tablet daily
Groups 1 and 2 receive tablets for 7
days longer than groups 3 and 4, in
order to determine if treatment prior to
exposure has any effect on the
development or duration of symptoms.
Which is the exp. group and which is the control group?
TREATMENT (BEFORE EXPOSURE)
No treatment
One placebo
tablet daily
One Echinacea
tablet daily
Groups 1 and 2 receive tablets for 7
days longer than groups 3 and 4, in
order to determine if treatment
prior to exposure has any effect on
the development or duration of
symptoms.
After one week, all individuals are exposed to
a cold-causing virus.
After one week, all individuals are
exposed to a cold-causing virus.
TREATMENT (AFTER EXPOSURE)
One placebo
tablet daily
One Echinacea
tablet daily
One placebo
tablet daily
HEALTH EVALUATION
For five days, doctors monitor all groups for cold symptoms.
One Echinacea
tablet daily
STEP 1 STEP 2
STEP 3 STEP 4
TREATMENT
STEP 5
CONCLUSIONS
Placebo before
and after exposure
to cold virus
Echinacea before
and after exposure
to cold virus
Placebo after
exposure to
cold virus
Echinacea after
exposure to
cold virus
• Individuals from all four
groups are just as likely to
develop a cold.
• Cold symptoms lasted for
the same amount of time in
all groups.
• Echinacea had no effect
on the duration or severity
of the cold.

FURTHER
EXPERIMENTATION
• Alter the amount of
Echinacea given to
subjects.
• Alter the length of
time subjects receive
the Echinacea
treatment.
Experimental conclusions often generate ideas for
further experimentation. Like what?
THEORY:
(A SCIENTIFIC THEORY IS USED DIFFERENTLY THEN
HOW IT IS USED IN THE GENERAL PUBLIC)
An explanatory hypothesis for a natural phenomenon that is
exceptionally well supported by the empirical data (obtained by
the experiments)
It has withstood the test of time and is unlikely to be altered by
any new evidence.
It is viewed by the scientific community as nearly the same
confidence of a fact.
TWO IMPORTANT BIOLOGICAL THEORIES:
1. CELL THEORY - ALL ORGANISMS ARE MADE OF CELLS
2. THEORY OF EVOLUTION BY NATURAL SELECTION
- that species changes over time
EX: MAMMOTH -> MODERN ELEPHANT
Be careful on the
illustrations/graphs
you use!
• SC.912.N.3.4 – recognize that
theories do not become laws, nor
do laws become theories; theories
are well supported explanations
and laws are well supported
descriptions
Fun with Bubbles
• Distinguish between
qualitative and
quantitative data
• Utilize the tools of
measurement and
emphasize the
importance of the
metric system
PSEUDOSCIENCE:
Scientific-sounding claims that are not supported by methodical
scientific studies.
It capitalizes on the beliefs shared by most people but the scientific
bases for a scientific sounding claim are NOT true.
EX: “4 out of 5 dentists recommend sugarless gum; Astrology –
planet positions affect your ability to get a new job.
ANECDOTAL OBSERVATIONS:
These are based on only one or just a few observations.
People conclude that there are a link or correlation between
two things. This can seem harmless but can be emotionally
powerful and frequently deflects from the real issue.
EX: HOROSCOPES, VACCINES CAUSE AUTISM
COULD THE HORSE REALLY DO
MATHEMATICAL CALCULATIONS ???
SUBTLE HINTS
AND BODY
LANGUAGE--SHOULD HAVE
USED ‘BLIND’
EXPERIMENTAL
DESIGN
PSEUDOSCIENCE AND ANECDOTAL
EVIDENCE. WHAT IS THE TRUTH ??????
The Fortune Teller Miracle Fish
Watch as the fortune teller miracle fish's
movements decide your fortune!
Can you figure it out?
Form a hypothesis and
test it!
Oobleck
A non-Newtonian liquid!
Can you explain what is happening?
Follow up
• Q&A
• Post Test
• Give-a-ways