BIOL 1309 Final Exam Study Guide Latest Version A+ Scores.

EXAM 1 Sept18th Scientific Inquiry Scientists, including biologists, use objective problem solving methods to observe the natural world and arrive at reasonable explanations of how the world works. Being objective means that researchers should not be biased or influenced by someone's personal beliefs, feelings or opinions. Scientific processes can be used to study phenomena that can be observed and measured. They are not designed to study things that cannot be observed or measured objectively. There are some things that we can observe and have opinions about, but for which there is no method of scientific measurement. For example, an art professor might bring two paintings to class and ask you to use the process of science to find out which is the better painting. Can you do what he asks? No--because "better" is not something that can be objectively measured. If he had asked "Which painting is older?" or "Which painting has a thicker coat of paint?" we could use the process of science to answer the question. The age of the paint and the thickness of the paint are things that can be objectively measured. Scientific processes cannot be used to test beliefs (religious or other doctrines) because beliefs are intangible and cannot be measured objectively. Religious explanations for the variety of life forms on Earth cannot be tested and, thus are not scientifically valid. This places religious explanations outside of the realm of science, just as the example of works of art in the previous paragraph. The process of scientific inquiry follows a basic pattern, or series of steps: 1) Make observations; 2) Come up with possible explanation (hypothesis); 3) Make predictions based on a hypothesis; 4) Test predictions of the hypothesis in an experiment; 5) Decide if results of the test allow you to eliminate (reject) the hypothesis or accept the hypothesis or revise the hypothesis. 6) Let other scientists know about your results.