Mago Bill science: An early introduction to and clarification of science including: seeing science as a way of communicating understanding and knowledge and beginning steps for doing science.
Science is a way one may use to improve every-day life. Science is a doing. It is a method of understanding. It is the practice of a method to understand and to communicate that understanding. It may be called the scientific method. This method can be an aid to one's personal self-development.
As you become more acquainted with this method of understanding you will become a more understanding person. You will also come to have a better understanding of science than do most people on earth. You will also have begun a better understanding of any of the sciences even ytterbiumology!
The scientific method includes the following 5 powerful actions:
~ observation
~ identification
~ description
~ experimentation
~ explanation.
These are four actions one may take to know. They are what one can do. This "what" is important but "how" may be more important. I will say a bit about this "how" right here. Observation may be the careful watching of a process, doing, or happening you have good reason to believe is real. Identification is being familiar enough with what you have observed to be able to recognize it again. A description enables you to tell another how to recognize the phenomenon and to help you to recognize it again later. Experimentation is a way to further investigate that which you have observed. Explanation is a theoretical explaining of what you are coming to understand from your observation of the phenomena you have identified.
Just taking the above steps and so becoming more aware of your observations has empowered you. So, we might say, a scientist carefully observes and begins an explanation of her observations. The method, is how she does this. That is, it is done carefully and systematically. The scientist can tell another the system and theoretically that other should be able to duplicate the original observations and experimentations and get similar results. The quality of what is done is important, How well you observe is important. How you do it is as important as what you do.
` To understand a subject it is good to clarify the words used to describe it. Let me begin to begin to define some our terms here. The word "science" seems a good place to start. Simply, science means knowledge, the business of coming to know. Just how one knows is a serious business. Science became knowledge gathered by study and still contains that meaning. Study is a name for careful observation and interpretation within a specified field. That now often includes study of the work of others, Now science has come to include the technical and mathematical study of a subject. We will not go as far as the uses of math or the techniques if a specific science. However, the basic methods of doing science both simpler and more powerful than one might suppose. Some come to see it as an attitude.
"Method" refers to the way an act is accomplished, how it is done. So, science is a way to understand. A particular science is a way to understanding in a particular field. Anthropology is a particular science. "Anthro- refers to humanity and -ology refers to study. So anthropology is the study of humanity. It is often about the comparative study of societies. Study is an important part of the life of most scientists. They want to know about what others in their field have learned.
In doing their science they usually begin with observation and identification; then on to describe and investigate. Experimentation in this field has not been easy, but anthropologist are finding ways of testing their observations. Their explaining of the phenomena of their field has proven interesting and useful. They have their own way of doing their work, but they also use the basic steps of the method we are learning about (I learn as I write.).
` "Biology" names another science. Its about life. It is the natural scientific study of life and living organisms. It is one of the more nicely developed sciences. So nicely developed that some of its practitioners some times seem to forget that its development is dependent on the method we are looking at. Cells and genes are important aspects of this science. Understanding them begins with observation and identification and then on to explain their finds to their fellows and humanity. Biologists use the scientific method.
You have seen that it can important that a person interested in science to have a good grasp on the nature of the scientific method. Knowledge of that method can be a great aid to one interested in knowledge. The following vocabulary points to activities useful to one who would know: observation, identification, recognition, explanation, probability, knowing, understanding, researching, theoretical description. Also, to remember that an ability to recognize and observe natural phenomena is a great aid to understanding and is part of scientific methodology. If you are interested in math you may find that solid geometry may prove an interesting way to keep your science real and less difficult to communicate.
I believe that you have an understanding of the heart of the scientific method as a way many have found useful for gaining practical, productive knowledge.
The ways of scientific observation are important to the development of understanding. Often it is carried with the use of technical instrumentation, but that need not be the case. My dictionary has this to say about "to observe:" to watch attentively, to notice, to make a systematic or scientific observation. I have heard that good observation may be like seeing with a new pair of glasses. "Systematic" implies that there may be a system or systems to be learned. It seems that the way of a scientific doing is as important as the what of it. I have heard that is not so much about what you but rather how you do it.
So observation includes the acts of looking, seeing, noting, and recording of phenomena. All this done as a step toward communicating your work to another. Your observation might be better done with instrumentation, but this is often not a necessity.
Observation may lead to developing a judgement or inference. Wow! We may have stuff (good important stuff) to learn about the development of a judgement or an inference. If you can tell us anything about judgement or inference as relates to science please use the "comments" section below. You may have to click on "no comments!"
There is more to learn about the way science is done. However this seems about enough for now. I'll end by saying a bit about identification. Identifying a phenomenon, is in large part, for the purpose of being able to recognize it yourself in the future and to an enable others to find it, and to recognize it.
Oh, ytterbiumology, it is beyond my present knowledge. Still it may be studied and know well enough to make us some cash. It seems that ytterbium is a real element known to many chemists and physicists. It has the symbol of Yb and the atomic number of 70. I am willing to be taught.
RCS