Scientific Method
The Scientific Method
The scientific method evolved over time, with some of history's greatest and most influential minds adding to and refining the process. Science is an enormously successful human enterprise. The study of scientific method is the attempt to discern the activities by which that success is achieved. Among the activities often identified as characteristic of science are systematic observation and experimentation, inductive and deductive reasoning, and the formation and testing of hypotheses and theories. Scientific method should be distinguished from the aims and products of science, such as knowledge, predictions, or control. Methods are the means by which those goals are achieved. Scientific method should also be distinguished …show more content…
from meta-methodology, which includes the values and justifications behind a characterization of scientific method (Example, a methodology) values such as objectivity, reproducibility, simplicity, or past successes. Methodological rules are proposed to govern method and it is a meta-methodological question whether methods obeying those rules satisfy given values.
Finally, method is distinct, to some degree, from the detailed and contextual practices through which methods are implemented.
While it is important to recognize these distinctions, their boundaries are fuzzy. Hence, accounts of method cannot be entirely divorced from their methodological and meta- methodological motivations or justifications, Moreover, each aspect plays a crucial role in identifying methods. Disputes about method have therefore played out at the detail, rule, and meta-rule levels. Changes in beliefs about the certainty or fallibility of scientific knowledge, for instance (which is a meta-methodological consideration of what we can hope for methods to deliver), have meant different emphases on deductive and inductive reasoning, or on the
relative importance attached to reasoning over observation (Example, differences over methods.) Beliefs about the role of science in society will affect the place one gives to values in scientific method.
My understanding to the scientific method were the following: 1.make some observation scientists are naturally curious about the world. While many people may pass by a curious phenomenon without sparing much thought for it, a scientific mind will take note of it …show more content…
as something g worth further thought and investigation. 2.Form a question: After making an interesting observation, a scientific mind itches to find out more about it. This is in fact a natural phenomenon. If you have ever wondered why or how something occurs, you have been listing to the scientist that you have inside of you. In the scientific method, a question converts general wonder and interest to a channeled line of thinking and inquiry. 3.Form a Hypothesis: A hypothesis is an informed or educated guess as to the possible answer of the question. The hypothesis may be formed as soon as the question is posed, or it may require a great dal of background research and inquiry.
The purpose of the hypothesis is not to arrive at the perfect answer to the question but to provide a direction to further scientific investigation. 4.Conduct an experiment: Once a hypothesis has formed, it must be tested. This is done by conducting a carefully designed and controlled experiment. The experiment is one of the most important steps in the scientific method, as it is used to prove a hypothesis right or wrong, and to formulate scientific theories. In order for it to be accepted as scientific proof for a theory, and experiment must meet certain conditions. It must be controlled, for example, it must test a single variable by keeping all other variables under control. The experiment must also be reproducible so that it can be tested for errors. 5.Analyze the data and draw a conclusion: As
the experiment is conducted. It is important to note down the results. In any experiment, it is necessary to conduct several trials to ensure that the results are constant. The experimenter then analyses all the data and uses it to draw a conclusion regarding the strength of the hypothesis. If the data proves the hypothesis correct, the original question is answered. On
the other hand, if the data disproves the hypothesis, the scientific inquiry continues by doing research to form a new hypothesis and then conducting and experiment to test it. The process goes until a hypothesis can be proven correct by a scientific experiment.
The scientific method evolved over time, with some of history's greatest and most influential minds adding to and refining the process. Science is an enormously successful human enterprise. The study of scientific method is the attempt to discern the activities by which that success is achieved. Among the activities often identified as characteristic of science are systematic observation and experimentation, inductive and deductive reasoning, and the formation and testing of hypotheses and theories. Scientific method should be distinguished from the aims and products of science, such as knowledge, predictions, or control. Methods are the means by which those goals are achieved. Scientific method should also be distinguished …show more content…
from meta-methodology, which includes the values and justifications behind a characterization of scientific method (Example, a methodology) values such as objectivity, reproducibility, simplicity, or past successes. Methodological rules are proposed to govern method and it is a meta-methodological question whether methods obeying those rules satisfy given values.
Finally, method is distinct, to some degree, from the detailed and contextual practices through which methods are implemented.
While it is important to recognize these distinctions, their boundaries are fuzzy. Hence, accounts of method cannot be entirely divorced from their methodological and meta- methodological motivations or justifications, Moreover, each aspect plays a crucial role in identifying methods. Disputes about method have therefore played out at the detail, rule, and meta-rule levels. Changes in beliefs about the certainty or fallibility of scientific knowledge, for instance (which is a meta-methodological consideration of what we can hope for methods to deliver), have meant different emphases on deductive and inductive reasoning, or on the
relative importance attached to reasoning over observation (Example, differences over methods.) Beliefs about the role of science in society will affect the place one gives to values in scientific method.
My understanding to the scientific method were the following: 1.make some observation scientists are naturally curious about the world. While many people may pass by a curious phenomenon without sparing much thought for it, a scientific mind will take note of it …show more content…
as something g worth further thought and investigation. 2.Form a question: After making an interesting observation, a scientific mind itches to find out more about it. This is in fact a natural phenomenon. If you have ever wondered why or how something occurs, you have been listing to the scientist that you have inside of you. In the scientific method, a question converts general wonder and interest to a channeled line of thinking and inquiry. 3.Form a Hypothesis: A hypothesis is an informed or educated guess as to the possible answer of the question. The hypothesis may be formed as soon as the question is posed, or it may require a great dal of background research and inquiry.
The purpose of the hypothesis is not to arrive at the perfect answer to the question but to provide a direction to further scientific investigation. 4.Conduct an experiment: Once a hypothesis has formed, it must be tested. This is done by conducting a carefully designed and controlled experiment. The experiment is one of the most important steps in the scientific method, as it is used to prove a hypothesis right or wrong, and to formulate scientific theories. In order for it to be accepted as scientific proof for a theory, and experiment must meet certain conditions. It must be controlled, for example, it must test a single variable by keeping all other variables under control. The experiment must also be reproducible so that it can be tested for errors. 5.Analyze the data and draw a conclusion: As
the experiment is conducted. It is important to note down the results. In any experiment, it is necessary to conduct several trials to ensure that the results are constant. The experimenter then analyses all the data and uses it to draw a conclusion regarding the strength of the hypothesis. If the data proves the hypothesis correct, the original question is answered. On
the other hand, if the data disproves the hypothesis, the scientific inquiry continues by doing research to form a new hypothesis and then conducting and experiment to test it. The process goes until a hypothesis can be proven correct by a scientific experiment.