Scientific method

philosophy bites Steps of the Scientific Method Please ensure you have JavaScript enabled in your browser. If you leave JavaScript disabled, you will only access a portion of the content we are providing. <a href="/science-fair-projects/javascript_help.php">Here's how.</a> What is the Scientific Method? The scientific method is a process for experimentation that is used to explore observations and answer questions. Even though we show the scientific method as a series of steps, keep in mind that new information or thinking might cause a scientist to back up and repeat steps at any point during the process. Whether you are doing a science fair project, a classroom science activity, independent research, or any other hands-on science inquiry understanding the steps of the scientific method will help you focus your scientific question and work through your observations and data to answer the question as well as possible. Educator Tools for Teaching the Scientific Method

Biometry details - AC What to do before attending You will either be attending the entire course or selected modules/topics, depending on who you are. Before attending the modules, you need to download and print the handouts for the particular days. Because the number of people attending varies widely from day to day, it's difficult for us to bring copies without wasting large amounts of paper, or running very short. Assessment Some of you will sit an exam, as indicated in the table below. Older Background Material Note that newer material is available through the on-line learning systems at Melbourne and Deakin. It's assumed that you have an understanding of basic statistics. Lecture Handouts NB: Download these files just before the relevant session, to be sure you have the current version of the handout. Lecture handouts are ready for you to download, print, and bring along to the relevant days. Module 1 (16-17July) Module 2 (18th and 19th July) Module 3 (25th and 26th July) Tutorials/Worksheets Tutorial Material

Apology by Plato Commentary: Quite a few comments have been posted about Apology. Download: A 58k text-only version is available for download. ApologyBy Plato Translated by Benjamin Jowett Socrates' Defense How you have felt, O men of Athens, at hearing the speeches of my accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that their persuasive words almost made me forget who I was - such was the effect of them; and yet they have hardly spoken a word of truth. But many as their falsehoods were, there was one of them which quite amazed me; - I mean when they told you to be upon your guard, and not to let yourselves be deceived by the force of my eloquence. Level of measurement In statistics and quantitative research methodology, various attempts have been made to classify variables (or types of data) and thereby develop a taxonomy of levels of measurement or scales of measure. Perhaps the best known are those developed by the psychologist Stanley Smith Stevens. He proposed four types: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio. Typology[edit] Nominal scale[edit] The nominal type, sometimes also called the qualitative type, differentiates between items or subjects based only on their names or (meta-)categories and other qualitative classifications they belong to; thus dichotomous data involves the construction of classifications as well as the classification of items. Central tendency[edit] Ordinal scale[edit] The ordinal type allows for rank order (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) by which data can be sorted, but still does not allow for relative degree of difference between them. Central tendency[edit] Interval scale[edit] Central tendency and statistical dispersion[edit] L.

Saint, Peace Seeker, Hero by Turns HODAL, India — Barreling down a sizzling-hot road, in a cloud of diesel fumes and dust, Ludkan Baba is on a serious roll. He lies flat on the ground, turning himself over and over like a runaway log, limbs flailing as he bumps across potholes, splashes through mud puddles and falls deeper into a spiritual trance. Like any sadhu, or Hindu ascetic, he undertakes severe penance to liberate his soul from reincarnation's endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Stretched out in the middle of the road, rolling hour after hour, mile after mile through crowds and heavy traffic, he is making his trip to eternal bliss. But this is no ordinary holy roller. He has rolled thousands of miles in the last 19 years, turning round and round so many millions of times that just pondering the thought can make your head spin. Yet to the 55-year-old sadhu, the constant turning is refreshing. "I move during cyclones, during blazing summers and cold winters," he said. He believes God's hand propels him.

Mechanism From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mechanism may refer to: Experiment Even very young children perform rudimentary experiments in order to learn about the world. An experiment is an orderly procedure carried out with the goal of verifying, refuting, or establishing the validity of a hypothesis. Controlled experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a particular factor is manipulated. Controlled experiments vary greatly in their goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results. There also exist natural experimental studies. A child may carry out basic experiments to understand the nature of gravity, while teams of scientists may take years of systematic investigation to advance the understanding of a phenomenon. Overview[edit] In the scientific method, an experiment is an empirical method that arbitrates between competing models or hypotheses.[1][2] Experimentation is also used to test existing theories or new hypotheses in order to support them or disprove them.[3][4]

Cognitive map Overview[edit] Cognitive maps serve the construction and accumulation of spatial knowledge, allowing the "mind's eye" to visualize images in order to reduce cognitive load, enhance recall and learning of information. This type of spatial thinking can also be used as a metaphor for non-spatial tasks, where people performing non-spatial tasks involving memory and imaging use spatial knowledge to aid in processing the task.[6] The neural correlates of a cognitive map have been speculated to be the place cell system in the hippocampus[7] and the recently discovered grid cells in the entorhinal cortex.[8] Neurological basis[edit] Cognitive mapping is believed to largely be a function of the hippocampus. Numerous studies by O'Keefe have implicated the involvement of place cells. Parallel map theory[edit] Generation[edit] The cognitive map is generated from a number of sources, both from the visual system and elsewhere. History[edit] The idea of a cognitive map was first developed by Edward C.

Reproducibility Aristotle′s conception about the knowledge of the individual being considered unscientific is due to lack of the field of statistics in his time, so he could not appeal to statistical averaging of the individual. History[edit] Boyle's air pump was, in terms of the 17th Century, a complicated and expensive scientific apparatus, making reproducibility of results difficult The first to stress the importance of reproducibility in science was the Irish chemist Robert Boyle, in England in the 17th century. Boyle's air pump was designed to generate and study vacuum, which at the time was a very controversial concept. Indeed, distinguished philosophers such as René Descartes and Thomas Hobbs denied the very possibility of vacuum existence. The air pump, which in the 17th century was a complicated and expensive apparatus to build, also led to one of the first documented disputes over the reproducibility of a particular scientific phenomenon. Reproducible data[edit] Reproducible research[edit]

Occam's razor The sun, moon and other solar system planets can be described as revolving around the Earth. However that explanation's ideological and complex assumptions are completely unfounded compared to the modern consensus that all solar system planets revolve around the Sun. Ockham's razor (also written as Occam's razor and in Latin lex parsimoniae) is a principle of parsimony, economy, or succinctness used in problem-solving devised by William of Ockham (c. 1287 - 1347). Solomonoff's theory of inductive inference is a mathematically formalized Occam's Razor:[2][3][4][5][6][7] shorter computable theories have more weight when calculating the probability of the next observation, using all computable theories which perfectly describe previous observations. History[edit] Formulations before Ockham[edit] Part of a page from Duns Scotus' book Ordinatio: "Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate", i.e., "Plurality is not to be posited without necessity" Ockham[edit] Later formulations[edit]

Theory choice A main problem in the philosophy of science in the early 20th century, and under the impact of the new and controversial theories of relativity and quantum physics, came to involve how scientists should choose between competing theories. The classical answer would be to select the theory which was best verified, against which Karl Popper argued that competing theories should be subjected to comparative tests and the one chosen which survived the tests. If two theories could not, for practical reasons, be tested one should prefer the one with the highest degree of empirical content, said Popper in The Logic of Scientific Discovery. Mathematician and physicist Henri Poincaré instead, like many others, proposed simplicity as a criterion.[1] One should choose the mathematically simplest or most elegant approach. Popper's solution was subsequently criticized by Thomas S.

Explanatory power Explanatory power is the ability of a hypothesis to effectively explain the subject matter it pertains to. One theory is sometimes said to have more explanatory power than another theory about the same subject matter if it offers greater predictive power. That is, if it offers more details about what we should expect to see, and what we should not. Explanatory power may also suggest that more details of causal relations are provided, or that more facts are accounted for. Overview[edit] Deutsch says that the truth consists of detailed and "hard to vary assertions about reality" Physicist David Deutsch offers a criterion for a good explanation that he says may be just as important to scientific progress as learning to reject appeals to authority, and adopting formal empiricism and falsifiability. Deutsch takes examples from Greek mythology. References[edit]

Complexity There is no absolute definition of what complexity means, the only consensus among researchers is that there is no agreement about the specific definition of complexity. However, a characterization of what is complex is possible.[1] Complexity is generally used to characterize something with many parts where those parts interact with each other in multiple ways. The study of these complex linkages is the main goal of complex systems theory. In science,[2] there are at this time a number of approaches to characterizing complexity, many of which are reflected in this article. Overview[edit] Definitions of complexity often depend on the concept of a "system"—a set of parts or elements that have relationships among them differentiated from relationships with other elements outside the relational regime. Some definitions relate to the algorithmic basis for the expression of a complex phenomenon or model or mathematical expression, as later set out herein. Varied meanings of complexity[edit]