What Is Science? (pages 6–12)

Learning ObjectivesStudents will be able to…

1. Identify the skills and attitudes that scientists use to learn about the world.2. Explain what scientific inquiry involves.3. Differentiate between a scientific theory and a scientific law.

Thinking Like a Scientist (pages 6–7)

1. Identify the skills and attitudes that scientists use to learn about the world.Key Concept: As scientists seek to understand the natural world, they use skills such as observing, inferring, and predicting. Successful scientists also possess certain attitudes, or habits of mind.

Science is a way of learning about the natural world.

Observing is using your senses to gather information. Your senses are sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.

Inferring is coming up with a reason for the things you observe. If you see people outside wearing coats, you might infer that it is a cold day.

Predicting is saying what will happen in the future. If the sky is cloudy, you might predict that it will rain.

Successful scientists are curious, honest, open-minded, and creative. They are also skeptical, or doubting. They doubt new ideas until the ideas have been tested.

FALSE!!

Scientific Inquiry (pages 8–11)

2. Explain what scientific inquiry involves.

Key Concept: Scientific inquiry refers to the many ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose explanations based on the evidence they gather.

Scientific inquiry begins with a question. For example, Benjamin Franklin asked “What is lightning?”

The question is followed with a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a possible answer to a scientific question. Franklin’s hypothesis was “Lightning is electricity.”

The hypothesis is tested with an experiment. To test his hypothesis, Franklin flew a kite in a thunderstorm.

Data are collected in the experiment. Data are facts and figures gathered by observing. Franklin saw sparks of electricity in his experiment.

The data are used to draw a conclusion. A conclusion is a decision about what the data mean. Franklin concluded that lightning is electricity.

The data and other results are shared with other people. This is called communicating.

Scientific Theories and Laws (page 12)

3. Differentiate between a scientific theory and a scientific law.

Key Concept: Unlike a theory, a scientific law describes an observed pattern in nature, but does not provide an explanation for it.

A scientific theory is an idea that explains many observations. For example, the theory of evolution explains why living things change over time. To be a theory, an idea must be supported by a lot of data.

A scientific law describes what always happens in a given situation. For example, the law of gravity says that a dropped object always falls to the ground.

theory

law