What is Science?
MiniLecture on what is science.
Many intelligent people have played around with defining science and some of them very seriously. A few definitions from some of these people are: definitions.
I am sure that you can recognize many ideas within these definitions that you would include in a personal definition of science and maybe some that you would now consider.
But, you say what is the real definition or the best definition. Well, from that list my favorite is:
A carpenter, a schoolteacher, and scientist were traveling by train through Scotland when they saw a black sheep through the window of the train.
"Aha," said the carpenter with a smile, "I see that Scottish sheep are black."
"Hmm," said the school teacher, "You mean that some Scottish sheep are black."
"No," said the scientist glumly, "All we know is that there is at least one sheep in Scotland, and that at least one side of that one sheep is black."Awe come on you say that can't be it. No, but it really gets to the heart of science. Observation. Everything we know, when doing science must be observable and not only observable, but repeatedly observable for verification. So if you want to get philosophical about science, the place to begin is to philosophize about what is observation, is it real, is it imagined, and is every person's imagined observation exist only in their mind.... and so on...
Enough philosophy get to the definition...
Alas, there is not one. There are many things that science is and there are many things that science is not; the most important that it is not, is anything that isn't based on verifiable observation. Philosophy based on beliefs and assumptions, religion based on faith, intuition based on our gut feelings... conclusions made from these are not scientific. That doesn't devalue those decisions or put greater value on decisions that are scientific. It is human nature that decides what to value and what process or processes to use to determine value, one choice when observation seems required is science.
So, what implications does this have for a professional science educator?
Fortunately or unfortunately it requires more inquiry. A simple defintion of science can be useful to point us in an appropriate direction, but unless that definition includes long lists of what science can do, how to do it, what it has created, and when to use it, it isn't very helpful for professional educators.
Upon realization of this a the definiton of science would be book length, Science for All Americans, for example, includes descriptions of what science is and introduces "science literacy" as a better term for professional educators to think about what science is and is not. So the question now ia: what is science literacy? Before you dive into the following resources on your quest of what science literacy is a couple of ideas. First, in science there are no right answers. Science is never done. There are ideas that are more accepted by the scientific community than others, but by the nature of science every idea is open to change. Second, no matter how much science you know it will never be enough. The information included in Science for All Americans, is what EVERY American graduate should be know to be science literate; not what a person needs to know to be a scientist, nor is it what a student needs to know to be awarded a science scholarship to a prestigeous college or university to study in a science field. More importantly for you, it is what a professional educator should know to teach in any grade.
Information at these links will help to explore what science literacy includes:
Math and science standards document links
Links for science educators
Books, articles, and online resources for science
Robert Sweetland's Notes ©
Summer 2005