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    Science Surprises: Exploring the Nature of Science
    Science Surprises: Exploring the Nature of Science
    Science Surprises: Exploring the Nature of Science
    Ebook157 pages1 hour

    Science Surprises: Exploring the Nature of Science

    By Lawrence Flammer

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    About this ebook

    Secondary Science Teachers: If you're looking for a unit to teach the nature of science (NoS), with lessons for practicing critical and skeptical thinking, this is it. This new text supplement is intended for students in any science class, grades 7-10. It can replace the usual first chapter in most secondary science textbooks with an updated and more accurate treatment of how science works, what it can and cannot do, and why it's so effective for increasing our understanding of the natural world. It particularly addresses the many misconceptions about NoS. It also satisfies virtually all of the new NOS science standards (in NGSS and CCSS). The booklet is part of an intensive introductory unit, using a collection of engaging interactive lessons freely available for download from the author's web site. There is also a Teacher's Guide to help do this most effectively, with the URLs for getting the lessons, unit plans, worksheets and other ancillary materials. If this sounds like something you want for your students, get this textbook, read it, then request the Teacher's Guide from the author, currently at no charge.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLawrence Flammer
    Release dateMar 5, 2014
    ISBN9781311806796
    Science Surprises: Exploring the Nature of Science
    Author

    Lawrence Flammer

    With an MS in zoology, the author taught high school biology for 38 years, "retired" in 1997. He also taught earth science, physical science, life science and computer programming. In 1998, he developed a website for the ENSI program (Evolution and Nature of Science Institutes). The website provides classroom-tested interactive lessons on the nature of science and evolution (including geological age dating). These lessons are freely available for download. In addition, there are many teaching tips and other resources for teaching evolution, the nature of science and related topics. The site continues to be very popular, with upwards of 2,000 hits per month, and more than 800 science teachers on the ENSI listserves. Its lessons are used mostly in high school biology classes as well as many middle school life science classes. They are also used in undergraduate classes and increasingly in AP Biology classes. The textbook "Science Surprises" evolved out of a text supplement the author developed for teaching the nature of science in the 1980s. He has also enjoyed mentoring new science teachers, both directly and online (with the eMSS program out of the UC Santa Cruz New Teacher Center). The author has published a few articles on teaching evolution and the nature of science: “The Evolution Solution” in the NABT's "American Biology Teacher" in March, 2006. You can access it easily at http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/evo-solution.html . The article details his approach to teaching evolution and NOS that he used successfully for most of his teaching career. "Chromosome Connections: Compelling Clues to Common Ancestry" in the NABT's "American Biology Teacher" in February, 2013, available at http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/ABT.ChromConn.2013.pdf . It uses the visible banded features of chromosomes to reveal different lines of compelling evidence of human ancestry. "Patterns in Time" in NSTA's "Science Scope" in February, 2011, available at http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/pat.time.article.pdf . Engaging lessons for developing a personal time sense for deep time, and the patterns of separate emergence for the major classes of vertebrates over tens of millions of years.

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      Book preview

      Science Surprises - Lawrence Flammer

      Science Surprises

      Exploring the Nature of Science

      Version 3.9: December 2014

      By Lawrence Flammer

      Copyright 2014 Lawrence Flammer

      Co-Published by Lawrence Flammer at Smashwords

      and ENSIWEB, LLC

      ISBN 9781311806796

      Science Surprises by Lawrence Flammer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

      Preface

      Students: As you use this booklet, keep in mind that there are several interactive lessons (or lab activities) that your teacher will introduce and guide you through. In fact, you probably have already done a few of those lessons before you got this textbook. This booklet should help you to better understand, remember and use the concepts you experienced in those lessons, and the additional lessons to come.

      In the Appendices, you will find a number of extensions from the main chapters. Some will take you into greater depth and detail. Others will provide more examples. And still others are additional activities that your teacher may assign. Or, you might just want to do them if they intrigue you, if you finished your assigned work, and you have the time.

      There were many more resources used to create this textbook (and the teaching guide) than are found on the Science Surprises References page. Those additional resources can be found in the Science Surprises Teaching Guide References.

      There were many people who contributed to the Science Surprises unit. These include the many teachers in the ENSI program who classroom-tested the lessons, and agreed to post them on the ENSI website. There were also the several teachers and their students across the nation who volunteered to field-test the Science Surprises program. Acknowledgement to those people (and many others) can be found in the Teach Science Surprises guide.

      Teachers: Be sure to read the Note to Teachers in this student textbook. This text supplement is intended to be used by students along with several engaging, interactive and hands-on lessons that are freely downloadable from the internet, and which you can prepare and introduce to your students.

      Contents

      Chapter 1. Why Science? What is Science?

      Why Science in Your Life?

      What is Science? What Do Scientists Do?

      What’s Next?

      Self Check A (Questions 1-8)

      Chapter 2. What Science is Not

      Questions Science Cannot Answer

      Answers Science Cannot Use

      What’s Next?

      Self Check B (Questions 1-9)

      Chapter 3. Words of Science

      Scientific Observations

      Scientific Explanations

      Problems With Words: Their Use and Misuse

      What’s Next?

      Self Check C (Questions 1-11)

      Chapter 4. Quality of Science

      Is it Good Science or is it Poor Science?

      What Makes Poor Quality Science?

      How Can We Tell if it’s Good Science or Not?

      What’s Next?

      Self Check D (Questions 1-10)

      Chapter 5. Pseudoscience: A Major Misuse

      Some Examples of Pseudoscience

      Comparison of Pseudoscience and Science

      Pseudoscience in the Science Classroom

      The Last Word

      What’s Next? The Future of Science, and Your Place in That Future

      Self Check E (Questions 1-7)

      Summary

      What’s New in This Edition?

      Note to Teachers

      References

      Credits for Figures Used (31 Figures)

      Student Appendices Index (13 items)

      Chapter 1. Why Science? What Is Science?

      You can observe a lot just by watching. ― Yogi Berra, champion baseball player

      From NASA.Gov as bluemarble_apollo17_big.jpg

      Figure 1.1: Our Earth really is round, like a ball.

      Of course you know that. But, a long time ago, everyone just assumed that the Earth was flat. Then, around 2,540 years ago (540 BCE), a Greek thinker (Pythagoras) suggested that our world might be round, like a ball. But he wasn’t a scientist. Why not? Well, he didn’t test his idea, that’s why. And he didn’t provide good, material evidence.

      Then, about 300 years later (240 BCE), a man from Libya (can you say Eratosthenes?) did more than just think about it. He actually measured some shadows in Egypt and cleverly figured out the actual distance around our globe.

      He used some shadows and some basic math, and his result was only 16% off the actual distance! This was 2,240 years ago! And it’s something you could do. Because of this, he became one of our first scientists. Do you know why? Ever since then, most educated people have agreed that our Earth is spherical. Even Columbus knew that.

      This photo above (Figure 1.1) was taken from space on Apollo 17. Can you see the shading near the edges? This is typical for a photo of a ball. Today, many people have gone into space and have actually seen our world rotating under them. Look at the videos taken by astronauts orbiting around the Earth in the International Space Station. You see, our ideas about how nature works start out as uncertain or temporary. Most people tend to go along with what seems to be a good explanation. But scientists are very skeptical people. If the explanation doesn’t always work, they look for a better one that fits all the evidence. Over time, if all the evidence supports the new explanation, scientists see it as the way the world really does work.

      Image credit: GNU Free Documentation License.

      Figure 1.2: Atomic orbitals for different electron energy levels.

      Even atomic theory has changed. Haven’t you seen pictures of atoms with tiny electrons in paths around a nucleus (Figure 3.4A)? That was an early scientific idea. Later, scientists found evidence that electrons were most likely in a hazy cloud region around the nucleus, and not in fixed orbits (Figure 3.4B). Still later, they found that the electrons were most likely to be in those fuzzy little orbital regions (Figure 1.2, above). Scientific understandings can change, but it’s always getting better, and closer to reality! At some point, scientists can agree that an explanation is real.

      Modified version of NASA.Gov image: solar-system-210.en.png from http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/ice-dwarf/en/

      Figure 1.3: Our Planets Orbit Around the Sun. This diagram shows all the planets moving in orbital paths around the Sun. (Nothing is to scale here, not the distances nor the sizes. And the planets are never all lined up like this). But the Sun is clearly the center of this system. Long ago, people assumed that the Earth was the center, with Sun and planets going around us (see Figure 1.7). But new evidence did not fit that view, disproving the old idea. Scientific understanding does change with new evidence.

      Magician And Floating Lady clip art free vector

      Figure 1.4: No Magic Allowed Here! Of course, you all know that science can only use natural explanations for natural phenomena. It cannot use magical or supernatural causes to explain the natural world. Many people think you can, but there’s a very good reason why you can’t do that in science. You’ll find out what that reason is later in this unit. This is also a key reason why science is so reliable.

      What can science do? What can science not do? What is science? How does it work? Let’s find out. Read the 12 items below. Which ones are true? Which are False? List numbers 1-12 in your notebook, and indicate there if you agree or disagree with each item.

      1. Science can only answer certain kinds of questions.

      2. Good scientists try to disprove their explanations, not prove them.

      3. Scientists can only use natural explanations, never supernatural ones.

      4. A scientific theory is a well-supported explanation about the natural world.

      5. A hypothesis is not just an educated guess.

      6. The main goal of science is to understand nature, not just gather facts.

      7. There are many ways to do good science; there is no one scientific method.

      8. Scientific knowledge can change only if new evidence weakens that existing knowledge.

      9. Specific scientific knowledge, supported by all evidence and scientific consensus, over time, can be considered a certainty.

      10. There are degrees of uncertainty in scientific knowledge, based on the evidence.

      11. With science, our knowledge about nature gets more and more accurate.

      12. With every new understanding in science, new questions arise.

      If you totally agree with all of the above features about science, then you are to be congratulated. And so should your former teachers who taught you about science. Those statements are all true. You might not even need this unit about the nature of science. But you can certainly help many of your fellow students to understand why they’re true. Unfortunately, there are many people who would not agree with some of those statements. They include doctors, engineers, lawyers, politicians, and even some science teachers!

      Did you disagree with even a few of those statements? If so, then the fact that they are all true may be your first surprise! This unit was made for you. There’s more to science than you may have ever dreamed. With the exciting experiences and discussions this unit provides, your class will discover what science can

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