ENSCI

• Contributions of Science

  • Direct source of new technological ideas (e.g., medical instruments, nuclear technology, radar systems)
  • Source of engineering knowledge used in designing tools and techniques
  • Development of human skills
• Curiosity and inquiry are the driving forces for the development of science. Scientists seek to understand the world and the way it operates
• Scientific Method


  Unbiased approach to gaining knowledge through observation, experimentation, and analysis
• Science


  The process of gaining knowledge from the natural world
• Steps of Scientific Method

  • Hypothesis (main important method) (educated guess that can be tested)
  • Scientific theory (widely-accepted, thoroughly tested explanation for a set of phenomenon)
  • Scientific laws (expressed in mathematical formulas). How the elements will behave
• Evolution: Evolved with the civilization of human beings
• Scientific Inquiry: Ultimate goal is to know, driven by natural curiosity/curious questions
• Scientific Method


  Method of research with defined steps, including experiments and careful observation
• Nature of Science: Process of gaining knowledge from the natural world. Scientific method is being used that’s why it is unbiased
• Technology


  Application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes
• Scientific Work is Transparent & Open to Critique: Whether scientific research is basic science or applied science, scientists must share their findings for other researchers to expand and build upon their discoveries. Most scientists present their results in peer-reviewed articles that are published in scientific journals. Peer-reviewed articles are scientific papers that are reviewed, usually anonymously by a scientist’s colleagues, or peers. These colleagues are qualified individuals, often experts in the same research area, who judge whether or not the scientist’s work is suitable for publication
• Hypothesis Testing: A hypothesis must be testable to ensure that it is valid. For example, a hypothesis that depends on what a bear thinks is not testable, because it can never be known what a bear thinks. It should also be falsifiable, meaning that it can be disproven by experimental results. Each experiment will have one or more variables and one or more controls: Experimental variables are any part of the experiment that can vary or change during the experiment. Controlled variables are parts of the experiment that do not change. Lastly, experiments might have a control group: a group of test subjects that are as similar as possible to all other test subjects, with the exception that they don’t receive the experimental treatment (those that do receive it are known as the experimental group)
• Logical Thinking: Inductive Reasoning: Uses related observations to arrive at a general conclusion. Common in descriptive science. Deductive Reasoning: Hypothesis-based science. Moves from a general principle or law to forecast specific results. Common in meteorological science. Both types of logical thinking are related to the two main pathways of scientific study: descriptive science and hypothesis-based science. Descriptive (or discovery) science aims to observe, explore, and discover, while hypothesis-based science begins with a specific question or problem and a potential answer or solution that can be tested
• Basic and Applied Science


  • Basic science or “pure” science seeks to expand knowledge regardless of the short-term application of that knowledge
  • Applied science aims to use science to solve real-world problems, such as improving crop yield, find a cure for a particular disease, or save animals threatened by a natural disaster
• Science


  Systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment
• Logical Saying: "One is a chance, two is coincidence, three is a pattern"
• Contributions of Technology

  • Source of scientific challenges, paving the way for research and development in science (e.g., space science with telescopes)
  • Indirectly stimulates basic research