History Of The Scientific Method

History Of The Scientific Method Do scientists need the Scientific Method to perform a meaningful experiment? It is undeniable that the best way to solve a problem in science is through a series of steps that lead to the solution. Since early stages in the development of Science, scientists have had the need of following certain steps in order to solve problems they were curious about to research. According to historians, Isaac Newton was the first researcher to complete the early process of the scientific method. (Yahoo Answers , 2006) The history of the scientific method begins in the Greeks civilization.greeks were the first ones who used observation and measurement to learn about the world. Aristoteles was the founder of the empirical science, but the muslims were the ones who developed the scientific process. They became the promotors of the scientific method. Galileo Galilei is given all the credit for being the creator of The Scientific Method. Meanwhile Brtish, Italians, French, and the Germans contributed to the methodology during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Among them are James Bacon, Renee Descartes, and Isaac Newton. It was between 19th and 20th century when scientists such as John Dewey and Morris R. Cohen spoke about the scientific method in America. (Edmund, 2000-2009) The scientific method is the process of asking and answering a specific question by performing experiment and observing the results obtained. It involves a series of steps that go from identifying a problem to a conclusion and, therefore, the publishing of the work to the scientific community around the world. This process includes the following steps: Identify a problem, or ask a question. Gather information, which consist in researching about the topic. Find relevant information about the theme being investigating. Develop a hypothesis, which is an educated guess or prediction of what the researcher thinks might happen. Perform an experiment to prove the hypothesis, or educated guess. Record and analyze data to see if the hypothesis was right or wrong. If your hypothesis is wrong, the researcher has to go back the process and restate the hypothesis. When the hypothesis is right the scientist draw conclusions and then publishes his work. (Science Buddies, 2012) Identifying a problem and asking a question are the base of the scientific method. Without a question to answer there is no need to develop a hypothesis or develop an investigation. The research question, the problem observed is the base. The researcher questions himself why a phenomenon occurs. From this, the other steps in the scientific method develop. (Science Stuff, 2007) When gathering information, observation is fundamental. Observation includes the use of the five senses to collect data. In this step it is important to record the information that is relevant to the investigation. It also includes research about the topic. (Science Stuff, 2007) The hypothesis is an explanation of why the phenomenon occurs; it is the educated guess. It proposes a statement in the Ifà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Thenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Because format. It is the scientists proposal to answer the question formulated at the beginning of the investigation. The hypothesis can be conceived as a prediction of what the scientist expects it is going to happen. (Science Stuff, 2007) The experiment is the step where scientists perform their tests and observe everything and figures out if the experimentation is going as they planned. In this step, different factors play important roles. These factors or variables are of great relevance in experiments. The variables can be independent, dependent, constants, and control. The independent variable is the factor that changes throughout the experiment. The dependent variable is the one that is being measured. In other words, the dependent variable could be the impact of the antibiotic on the bacteria. An independent variable is the presumed cause, whereas the dependent variable is the presumed effect. For example, if a scientist is investigating the effect of antibiotics on specific bacteria, the independent variable could be the amount of antibiotic used. The control is the standard of measurement in the experiment. It is a standard of comparison, the reference investigators use to compare their results. As scientists investigate, they need to record data while they observe the experiment progressing. They use different tools to record this data. Sometimes it is useful to keep a journal to record in a more detailed way what is going on in their experiment. Another important tool used by scientists when recording and analyzing data is charts and graphs. Bar graphs and pie charts get used frequently in science. These tools help visualize and display the information in a more effective way. (Science Stuff, 2007) The last step of the scientific method, draw a conclusion. In this step, scientists approve or reject the hypothesis formulated at the beginning. They conclude if their conjecture was right or wrong. In other words, the conclusion is a summary of the statements that have being proved throughout the experiment to answer the original question. In this step, it is required to have an answer, to tell if the hypothesis was true or false. In this conclusion scientists include the data that helped them confirm the hypothesis, but if the hypothesis was not confirmed scientist need to evaluate the process to find out what was the error. They should review everything that might cause a difference in results from what it was expected. (Science Stuff, 2007) In order to obtain a valid or reliable, scientists should repeat the experiment many times to see if the results are the same. This process could be tedious, but it will help confirm that the experiement is accurate. This helps find out if there was an error in the first experimentation. Performing an experiment only once does not provide enough information to comfirm or reject a hypopthesis. Scientist have used the scientific method to figure out explanations to different phenomenon. The scientist used the scientific method to come up with scientific laws and scientific theories. A scientific theory is an explanation of a phenomenon obtained by reasoning, observing , and experimenting. An example of scientific theory is Darwins theory of evolution. On the other hand, a scientific law tries to describe a phenomenon that occurs in nature. An example of Scientific law is E = mc ² referring to the speed of light in a vacumm. In most cases, scientists do not have the technology to model the phenomenon in study. But by studying and investigating it, they can conclude and formulate a scientific law. They have also used the scientific method to discover how technology affects the results in an experiment. When following the scientific method, technology has an important role. As technology has developed, scientists have had the opportunity to use it in their doings, being able to perform actions that facilitate the process. Technology affects science in a positive way, helping people gain knowledge. There are innumerable processes that are possible today thanks to the use of technology that were inimaginable long time ago. Many of the phenomenon that have been observed since ever have finally found their explantions just because of the application of technology in science. The scientific method is extremely important for researchers and scientists. They use the scientific method everytime they have a new discovery in science. The scientific method has 5 steps that are required for an investigation: identify a problem, research about the topic, formulate a hypothesis, perform an experiment, and record and analyze data from the observations made during the experiment. An extremely interesting fact about science is that it is not affected negatively by technology; on the contrary, technology is a useful tool in todays generation. As Robert M. Pirsig Traditional scientific method has always been at the very best, 20 20 hindsight. It is good for seeing where you have been. Its good for testing the truth of what you think you know, but it cant tell you where you ought to go. (Thinkexist, 1999-2012)

Independent Study in Ornithology Essay

The year is wrapping up and so is my ornithology class†¦ And now we have to evaluate a credit flex that as no scale†¦. dun dun dun. This way of grading was actually a really good idea because I can actually explain what all I did over this semester and try to have it make a bit of sense (instead of just having diagrams and babblings of bird-stuff). I’ll try my best to stay away from the dry regurgitations of facts and such, but still get the point across that I feel my project should merit an A. In all seriousness, I did put in a lot of time and effort into this course—even more so than all of my honors classes so far this year. Just the nature of this credit flex shows I really care about what I’m doing. It doesn’t make sense numbers wise for all the effort; even if I received an A+, it still lowers my GPA. I don’t need any extra science credit either. This project was mainly to demonstrate that I will take the initiative to go above and beyond what is required in order to achieve something spectacular. Okay, maybe many do not care one way or another that I pursued a credit flex and would not consider it a particularly spectacular feat, but at least I can look back proudly at all that I have accomplished over the year. The bulk of my ornithology class was actually following lecture notes from a college professor. Dan Tallman posted almost 120 pages of lecture notes broken into sections. I grouped these sections into manageable topics that all seemed related and proceeded to summarize everything that I was learning in 28 parts. This alone was a painstaking process; it was like reading a textbook and pulling out the facts from each page. If I ran across unfamiliar vocabulary or concepts, I looked them up until I understood them (unlike some students†¦ erm†¦ that just skip the stuff they don’t know and move on just to get the assignment done). Next I started familiarizing myself with the different topographies of birds. I started with the general body of a bird, then worked into the specifics of wings, beaks, legs, feet, toes, and even claws. Okay, so that’s cool. But then I actually applied what I learned to a real life example—my cockatiel—and put what I learned to use. I combined the different diagrams and types and compared them to those of my bird. Drawings can only get you so far; determining what exactly I was looking at was a great way to test what I knew! Most ornithology courses require labs along with study material. As a â€Å"lab† I dissected an owl pellet (which as I was looking through my folder, I do not think I included a copy—whoops! That is why it’s attached along with a new table of contents). As a second lab, I learned to identify species of North American birds through a quiz provided by Cornell. It showed a ten second video clip of a bird and you would have to type in its name (no multiple choice!!). Finally, as the cherry on top, I revised a report on ivory-billed woodpeckers I had done as a freshman. The freshman research project was on John Audubon and any topic that related to him; naturally, I chose a bird. I revisited the essay on this woodpecker species and expanded the research on the bird itself (instead of the man). I did not create this course as a GPA booster or to earn a class credit, but because I honestly felt I could learn something from it. This course is a lot like sports—you get out of it only what you put into it. It would have been easy to print off the lecture notes and say I read them all, etc. Instead, I spent a lot of time an effort planning and carrying out this project because it was important to me, and that is why I feel it deserves an A.

The Importance of Reward in Motivation - 1742 Words

In daily life, we need motivation to improve our performance in our job or in studies. Motivation is an internal force, dependent on the needs that drive a person to achieve. In the other words, motivation is a consequence of expectations of the future while satisfaction is a consequence of past events (Carr, 2005). We need to give reward to our self when we did correctly or we has achieve our target. Reward is something that we are given because we have behaved well, worked hard, or provided a service to the community. Theories of motivation can be used to explain the behavior and attitude of employees (Rowley, 1996; Weaver, 1998). The theories include content theories, based on assumptions that people have individual needs, which†¦show more content†¦It is the job context which is the dissatisfaction among the employees when the extrinsic condition is not present. If the extrinsic condition is present, which is not motivated the employees necessarily. Meanwhile the intrin sic reward is related to the job content. It builds strong levels of motivation that can result in good job performance. If these conditions are not present, jobs do not prove highly satisfying. The factors in intrinsic reward are called satisfiers or motivators and include achievement, recognition, responsibility, and so on as mention early. According to Allen and Killman (2001a: 114), the reward system should be aligned to motivate employee performance that is consistent with the firm’s strategy, attract and retain people with the knowledge, skill and abilities required to realize the firm’s strategic goal, and create a supportive culture and structure. This means that they need to motivate their employees to helps them achieve the firm’s goals. When the subordinates are has a good feeling about their job, that are generally related to job content (motivators), while if they has a bad feeling are associated job context (hygiene factors).The intrinsic reward su ch as the sense of meaningfulness, sense of choice, sense of competence, and sense of progress are important to us on a job.Show MoreRelatedThe Importance Of Reward Enhances Motivation And Motivation2117 Words   |  9 PagesDISCUSSION The aim of this experiment was to test whether or not reward enhances motivation, therefore enhancing results of performance. My hypothesis stated that results would be inconclusive due to subjects being self-motivated and happy to do their best. I thought that this no effect on their performances. I took consideration into realising that subjects may not be self-motivated and needed a reward to spur them on to performing at their best. 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