Reflecting on the Nature of Science Science for All Americans (Chapter 1)

Your name: Amber Rodriguez

Aspect of Science
The World Is Understandable

What this means (In your own words)

There are ways to explore and understand all parts of
the world.

Scientific Ideas Are Subject To

Change; yet Scientific
Knowledge Is Durable

It is understandable to change your mind or ideas about

a scientific concept, but there may be set knowledge
about something.

Science Cannot Provide

Complete Answers to All
Questions

Even though you may do extensive experimentation or

investigation it may not answer your questions.

Science Demands Evidence

If you make a hypothesis or prediction you should

always have evidence to back it up.

Science Is a Blend of Logic

and Imagination

Some science begins from the minds and imaginations

people have.

Science Explains and Predicts

Making sense of observation by predicting and then

explaining.

Examples of this from your experience

When I was young I did not understand how
a car worked but as I got older I learned
more about them and eventually through
exploration how to drive one.
When I was younger I thought the moon
followed us because in the car I could see
it wherever we drove, then my ideas
changed when I learned that the moon is so
large and that is why it can always be seen.
Things like paradoxes, time travel and worm
holes are things we talked about in my
astronomy class in which my professor
talked about scientists still have questions
about and may never be able to solve.
When doing a science fair in 4th grade we
were required to complete a lot of
experiments and collect a lot of data that
answered our questions.
Having the imagination of flying but the
logic is gravity prevents it.
Making a paper Mache volcano: first
predicting how high the lava will erupt and
then explaining why and how it erupted.

Aspect of Science
Scientists Try to Identify and
Avoid Bias

What this means (In your own words)

Scientists do not want to come off as biased which will
influence their research most likely negatively.

Examples of this from your experience

While observing or investigating, trying not
to use bias to make inferences.

Science Is Not Authoritarian

There is not a pre set conclusion that scientists are

supposed to reach. They are subject to their own
conclusions.

Trying not to let criticism get to me while

trying to complete an assignment or
experience something for my own benefit.

Science Is a Complex Social

Activity

Science has many branches and can go off into many

different degrees of the field involving many different
people and ideas.

There Are Generally Accepted

Ethical Principles in the
Conduct of Science

Most scientists follow a set of ethical principles in the

field of science.

It is sometimes hard to find out which

branch of something I am most interested in
because there may be so many. A small
scale would be trying to pick out a type of
cereal when there are so many different
brands, flavors, etc.
Like scientists, I follow a set of rules at my
job and in school.