Concept
Statements
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Emphasis
in
your teaching
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General
importance
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| 1. Science
is a social endeavor, and as such depends upon a community
of scientists who accepts its ‘rules’. |
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| 2. The
preparation of results for publication, their review, and
the response of the scientific community is an integral
part of the scientific process. |
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| 3. To
be valid an experiment generally must include both positive
and negative controls. |
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| 4. A
positive control checks to see whether reagents and methods
used produce the expected effects – whether they
work. A negative control checks to see of the experimental
effect observed is due to a specific change in the system. |
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| 5.Scientific
questions are generally based on a working hypothesis.
The question is framed to provide, if possible, an unambiguous
yes/no answer. |
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| 6.
If a question cannot be answered unambiguously, it needs
to be reformulated. Often it must be simplified. |
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| 7.
To be useful, it must be possible to accurately describe
the conditions under which the experiment was carried out,
the reagents used, etc., so that other can, if they desire,
repeat and extend the observation. |
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| 8. Fruitful
hypothesis are either revised or extended, they rarely
remain constant. |
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| 9. As a hypothesis gains confirmation and is extended, it
may become a well established theory. Theories may be modified,
or subsumed by other more generally applicable or accurate
theories, but are rarely abandoned in toto. |
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| 10. The
more accurately measurements can be made, the more
rigorously a hypothesis can be tested. |
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