Introduction to Science & The
Scientific Method
What is Science?
 A way of knowing…
 An inquiry and discovery
based approach to
understanding the world
around us and
describing its structure.
Scientific Pursuits
 Scientists seek to uncover the natural causes of
natural phenomena
 Observation & measurement allow us to answer
questions about the structure of nature and its
workings
Scientific Pursuits (cont.)
 The goal of science is to accurately answer
questions and thereby accurately describe the world
around us.

Thus, scientific endeavors must be testable, repeatable, and
verifiable.

Science is also falsifiable, meaning that the conclusions drawn
from scientific research can be shown to be false.
The Process of Science
The Process of Science
 There are two main approaches to science

Discovery Science (describing nature)

Hypothesis-Driven Science (explaining nature)
Discovery Science
 Observations and measurements are the data of
discovery science

They allows us to describe what's around us
Discovery Science (cont.)
 The Human Genome Project

Massive discovery based effort

Led to a description of the
structure of the human genome
Discovery Science (cont.)
 The observations of discovery science provide us
with a framework of knowledge or understanding.
 They also stimulate us to ask questions and seek
explanations (hypothesis-driven science).
Hypothesis-Driven Science
 Hypothesis-driven science involves asking a specific
question, developing a hypothesis, and then
experimentally testing the hypothesis.

A hypothesis is a tentative answer to a question
Hypothesis-Driven Science
 By asking questions and seeking explanations we are
able to more fully understand and explain why things
are the way they are, and how they came to be that
way.
Hypothesis-Driven Science (cont.)
 Scientist use the scientific method to answer their
questions.
 The scientific method is a series of logical steps that
can be applied to answer questions.
The Steps of the Scientific Method
In brief…
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Observe
Question
Hypothesize
Experiment
Analyze
Conclude
The longer version…
Make an observation
Ask a question
Develop a hypothesis
Design an experiment
to test your hypothesis
5. Collect data
6. Analyze your data
7. Draw conclusions
about your hypothesis
based on the result of
your experiment
1.
2.
3.
4.
The Scientific Method in Everyday Life
The Scientific Method in Action
A CASE STUDY ON TRANS FATS
Are trans fats bad for you? (a case study)
 Dietary fat comes in different forms.
 Trans fat is a non-natural form
produced through manufacturing
processes.
 Trans fat



Adds texture
Increases shelf life
Is inexpensive to prepare
Are trans fats bad for you? (a case study)
 A hypothesis-driven study published in 2004



Started with the observation that human body fat
retains traces of consumed dietary fat.
Asked the question: Would the adipose tissue of heart
attack patients be different from a similar group of
healthy patients?
Formed the hypothesis that healthy patients’ body fat
would contain less trans fat that the body fat in heart
attack victims.
Are trans fats bad for you? (a case study)

The researchers set up an experiment to determine the
amounts of fat in the adipose tissue of 79 patients who had a
heart attack.

They compared these patients to the data for 167 patients who
had not had a heart attack.

This is an example of a controlled experiment, in which the
control and experimental groups differ only in one variable—the
occurrence of a heart attack.
Are trans fats bad for you? (a case study)
The results showed
significantly higher levels
of trans fat in the bodies
of the heart attack
patients.
Theories in Science
Facts & Theories
 Scientific observation and experimentation generate
facts.
 Facts are the prerequisites of science
Facts & Theories (cont.)
 While facts are important and necessary
prerequisites of science, theories greatly advance
science.
 Theories have broad explanatory power and they tie
together a number observations (facts) that seemed
previously unrelated
Theories in Science
 Newton’s theory of gravity tied together numerous
observations and explains many phenomena
Theories in Science (cont.)
 Because theories are so comprehensive, they only
become accepted when supported by a “mountain” of
evidence.