Studying the Scientific Method
Studying the Scientific Method
Science is a system of knowledge which we derive from observation. Science can be divided into two distinct fields One of these is Social Science, which can be described as the study of the social life of human beings. Social Sciences, such as economics, law, criminology, and psychology consider the nature, growth, and functioning of human society. While Social Sciences are focused on human interaction, the other major field, Natural Sciences, studies the environment that humans live in. It does this by developing and testing laws of mass, motion, energy, etc. Even though the two fields are different, they both use the same system to collect information and test theories.
This system used by both fields is the scientific method. There are many different versions of the Scientific Method. They differ by the number of steps each uses. But in my opinion, the Scientific Method has only four key steps. The first is observation. All Science begins with the observation of facts in our environment. Then, after we collect enough information about the development of a certain event in nature, we begin to formulate questions. Questions such as, “why can birds fly, but humans cannot,” or “why must everything fall to the ground.” After we have a lot of questions about the event that we can’t understand, then we try to explain a reason for the event. Therefore, the second step is to make a hypothesis. A hypothesis is an idea that suggests an explanation for something that has not yet been proven to be true. For example, Galileo guessed that the world was not the center of the universe and Columbus guessed that the world was not flat, but round. But the only way to know if a hypothesis is accurate is to prove it by using an experiment. So, the third step is to test the hypothesis with a thorough experiment. Testing should occur in a situation where the surroundings are fixed and controlled. Furthermore, the same test should be repeated multiple times in order to make sure that the result can be trusted. The final step is to summarize the findings of the experiment. In this step, the hypothesis is either confirmed or it is changed and more testing is done. Therefore, it is possible that the summary of...