Terminology: What Scientists Mean by “Fact,” “Hypothesis,” “Theory,” and “Law” « Exposing PseudoAstronomy Introduction I’ve decided to write this post so that I have something to refer to and don’t have to constantly re-define these words: Fact, Hypothesis, Theory, and Law. This may seem silly. “Why,” you may ask, “would you have to define such simple little words?” The reason is that the colloquial use of these words by the general public is very different from their usage by scientists. Colloquial Use To use math expressions, the general use of these words goes in order of importance as: Fact > Law > Theory > Hypothesis. “Fact” in Everyday Language: A “fact” is something that is true. “Law” in Everyday Language: In everyday language, a “law” is generally on the same level as a fact. “Theory” in Everyday Language: This is where the supposed insult to scientists comes in when you call something “just a theory.” “Hypothesis” in Everyday Language: A “hypothesis” is sort of on the same level as a “theory,” if slightly below. Scientific Use Final Thoughts Like this: Like Loading...
99 Resources to Research & Mine the Invisible Web - College College researchers often need more than Google and Wikipedia to get the job done. To find what you're looking for, it may be necessary to tap into the invisible web, the sites that don't get indexed by broad search engines. The following resources were designed to help you do just that, offering specialized search engines, directories, and more places to find the complex and obscure. Search Engines Whether you're looking for specific science research or business data, these search engines will point you in the right direction. Turbo10: On Turbo10, you'll be able to search more than 800 deep web search engines at a time. Databases Tap into these databases to access government information, business data, demographics, and beyond. GPOAccess: If you're looking for US government information, tap into this tool that searches multiple databases at a time. Catalogs If you're looking for something specific, but just don't know where to find it, these catalogs will offer some assistance. Directories
Systems Thinking Games Systems Thinking Games, developed in partnership with Filament Games, are designed to be used by youth and educators to assess systems thinking skills both in the classroom and in afterschool contexts. A precursor to the GlassLab, this project brings together teachers, assessment experts and game designers and developers to collaboratively design and build a suite of games with data tools that support teachers in evaluating the way players approach problem-solving, and the strategies players use in understanding and interacting with complex systems. Currently, research is underway to develop assessment frameworks that yield valid and reliable assessment measures across the suite of digital games. To learn more, please join the Institute’s community for updates on our progress.
Fact or Theory Fact or Theory? by John P. Pratt©1998 by John P. Astronomy Home Page It is extremely important to distinguish between facts and theories in science, and in every other subject also, because facts usually remain the same and theories often change. The Scientific Method There are essentially three steps to the scientific Method, although some authors break it in to more. 1. Let's suppose we were interested in this marvelous world in which we live enough to actually look at it once in a while. 2. Try to explain what you've observed. 3. The heart of science lies in this third step. Falsification. These three steps are usually repeated over and over, often refining the theory after each set of new observations or experiments, with increasingly difficult testing hurdles for the theory to overcome. Repeat the Three Steps Until Satisfied. Unscientific Theories. Truth. Everyday Scientific Method. TV commercials are filled with suggestions for you. Usefulness of Science. The "Rest of the Story."
System Dynamics | Insight Maker Insight Maker supports System Dynamics modeling: a powerful method for exploring systems on an aggregate level. By "aggregate", it is meant that System Dynamics models look at collections of objects, not the objects themselves. For instance, if you created a model of a water leakage from a bucket, a System Dynamics model would concern itself with the quantity of water as a whole, not with individual droplets or even molecules. Similarly, if you were modeling a population of rabbits, the System Dynamics model would look at the population as a whole, not at the individual rabbits. System Dynamics models are constructed from a set basic building blocks also known as "primitives". From these basic primitives, and the others supported by Insight Maker, you can build both simple and complex models in a straightforward manner.
Understanding Science: An overview To understand what science is, just look around you. What do you see? Perhaps your hand on the mouse, a computer screen, papers, ballpoint pens, the family cat, the sun shining through the window …. Science is, in one sense, our knowledge of all that — all the stuff that is in the universe, including the tiniest subatomic particles in a single atom of the metal in your computer’s circuits, the nuclear reactions that formed the immense ball of gas that is our sun, and the complex chemical interactions and electrical fluctuations within your own body that allow you to read and understand these words. But science is not just a collection of knowledge. Science helps to satisfy the natural curiosity with which we are all born: Why is the sky blue? Science is complex and multi-faceted, but the most important characteristics of science are straightforward: To many, science may seem like an arcane, ivory-towered institution — but that impression is based on a misunderstanding of science.
SimCityEDU Games With the suite of SimCityEDU games developed by GlassLab, educators have versions of SimCity created specifically for the classroom, with all of the tools and content they need to making learning come alive for students. Designed in partnership with learning and assessment experts from ETS and Pearson, SimCityEDU Games will engage students in a personalized learning experience, and improve the process of teaching and learning by providing formative assessment information about students’ ability to problem-solve, explain the relationships in complex systems, and read informational texts and diagrams. Lesson plans and teacher and student dashboards complete the SimCityEDU experience. Built with today’s classrooms in mind, the games support implementation in a wide range of learning contexts, from middle school classrooms to after-school and summer learning programs, and are aligned to Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards, as well as twenty-first century skills.
Scientific Explanations As diverse as sciences are, all scientific explanations have a lot in common. Psychological research, just like all other scientific research, adheres to these principles. Scientific Explanations are Empirical "Empirical" means "based on the senses." Scientific Explanations are Tentative This means that all findings are subject to change should there be enough evidence to necessitate a change. Scientific Explanations are Probabilistic Nothing can be measured precisely; there is always a degree of uncertainty in one's measurement. Scientific Explanations are Testable There must exist an outcome that does not support the theory. Scientific Explanations are Parsimonious If there are multiple theories that explain the data, the simplest one is usually correct. Scientific Explanations Assume Cause & Effect For every effect, there is a cause. Scientific Explanations are General
Text : Is Gravity a Theory or a Law? This week's experiment comes from a recent question, wanting to know whether gravity is a law or a theory. That question brings up so many more questions that I thought it would be fun to explore. To try this, you will need: - an object to drop. OK, pick an object that will not break, dent the floor, cause a mess, or get either of us in trouble. Actually, we should be talking about both. In the language of science, the word "law" describes an analytic statement. We can use Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation to calculate how strong the gravitational pull is between the Earth and the object you dropped, which would let us calculate its acceleration as it falls, how long it will take to hit the ground, how fast it would be going at impact, how much energy it will take to pick it up again, etc. While the law lets us calculate quite a bit about what happens, notice that it does not tell us anything about why it happens. Have a wonder-filled week. Home - Process of Science - What is Science?
Study Unit : When Does a Theory Become a Law? Nature of Science To answer the question what is the nature of science? We must first answer what is science? One common answer is that science consists of three domains: A body of knowledge. The nature of science constitutes this third domain and is the most abstract and least familiar of the three. The nature of science as a way of thinking refers to ‘thinking with a particular lens’ – just as the nature of history would be thinking through a historical lens. This collection unpacks the nature of science.
Theory Oddly enough, one of the most important aspects of science is also one of those most frequently misunderstood. That, of course, is the concept of a "theory." The problem is that this is one of those words which has two meanings. There's the common meaning, which is much like what a scientist would call a "hypothesis." Then there's the scientific meaning, which is much, much more. In order to get to the difference, we need to look a little bit at just what it means to "know" something. Knowing We learn our universe by experience; pretty much all of our useful knowledge is experiential. As our library of fact information increases, our brains do something which is apparently deeply innate to us: they form patterns. Thus, if I asked you what you knew about ice, you'd have no hesitation telling me that ice is cold. In fact, under the right conditions, water will freeze at room temperature, so while your knowledge about ice is very useful to you, it isn't actually completely correct.