Science Framework, part 1 - Free Downloads (CA Dept of Education)

17lends to the study of the natural worldis stunning. For example, the positionof the planets over millions of years inthe past can be closely approximated byusing only two strings of symbols takenfrom Newton’s laws of motion andgravity:F = ma and F = Gm 1m 2/d 2The second assumption is that anyonecan measure the strength of a scientifictheory by fairly testing itspredictions. Scientific research papersthus contain not only the results of aninvestigation, but all the informationneeded to replicate the research. Thelifetime work of many scientists is replicatingother scientists’ experiments inorder to test their conclusions.The third assumption is that individualsand groups can make progresstoward understanding natural phenomena,and their discoveries can be replicatedat any time and suitable place byan objective observer. Truth in scienceknows no cultural or national boundaries.Science is not a system of beliefsor faith but a replicable body of knowledge.In fact, science is incapable ofanswering questions that are based onfaith. Within the scientific community,individuals or groups may sometimessee only what they desire to see or havebeen conditioned to see. Scientificprogress is sometimes stalled by incorrecttheories or results; but once it isshown that those theories or resultscannot be confirmed by others,progress resumes in the correct direction.The scientific method ultimatelyallows for the formulation of scientifictheories. Part of science education is tolearn what these theories are and tracetheir operation in the world. A theory inpopular language is a collection of relatedideas that one supposes to betrue; in science, a theory is defined bythe principles of the scientific method.Those principles, in order of precedence,are as follows:1. A scientific theory must be logicallyconsistent and lead to testable predictionsabout the natural world.2. The strength of a scientific theorylies solely in the accuracy of thosepredictions.3. Of two scientific theories that makeaccurate predictions, the theory thatmakes a greater number of predictionswith fewer underlying assumptionsis likely to prove stronger.The making and testing of predictionsis what distinguishes sciencefrom other intellectual disciplines, andemphasizing the accuracy of predictionsrather than the cogency of explanationsis the key to scientific progress.A large assortment of recorded observationscan often be accounted forwith explanations that sound good butare nonetheless wrong. Predictionsthat can be tested and verified, however,provide a sound standard bywhich a scientific theory can bejudged.The requirement that a scientifictheory makes predictions might seemto reject as unscientific any theory thatdescribes the past. However, scientifictheories that describe the past (such asthose set forth by geologists, paleontologists,and so forth) do make predictionsabout what will be observed inthe future. For example, if there was amass extinction at the boundary betweenthe Cretaceous and Tertiaryperiods more than 65 million yearsago, then a sample of sedimentary rockChapter 2The Nature ofScience andTechnology