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Hello ! (: I asked some one what science was and they could not tell me what it really was. So This lovely lesson will be your basics on science, what it is, and new views on what science is. Here are your vocabulary words to be looking for through out the lesson, copy down the word, YOUR definition and the dictionary's. Once done make a copy and send it to me to be graded. After this lesson you may turn to your Practical science text book and take the test on page 42 and 43,(please turn in before the 24th All grades will be final) it will count as your final grade of the semester.  I hope you enjoy this lesson and good luck students .(: First watch this short video and take LOTS of notes it will help on your test, it will also help you understand Scientific Method. [] A Complete Definition **Scientiftic knowledge is reliable, factual, objective knowledge, universally true for all people. **  Science has another purpose than proving truths. **It’s designed to be used for the good of society. ** This is accomplished because scientific knowledge is primarily used by **technology. **  **,** Technology is a broad field that takes scientific knowledge and applies it to the creation and improvement of inventions, machines, manufactured consumer goods, and anything that is used by, or will somehow improve, society. The list of products that are made, based on scientific knowledge, is endless and includes everything  **skateboards and anything w - medicine, automobiles, computers, appliances, buildings, electronics, farming, mining, clothes, toys, food, music, TVs whatsoever that is man-made, manufactured, bought and sold, ** <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
 * hypothesis || variable || scientific theory ||
 * scientific method || control || scientific law ||
 * science || technology || ethics ||
 * <span style="color: #808080; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">that helps people. **

<span style="color: #808080; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Think for a moment. Walk around your house. List everything in your home that has been influenced or created by the discoveries of science. Even the air you breathe has been cooled by an air conditioner that was designed and manufactured using the principles of science. **<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">What exists today that has NOT been effected by science? It seems everything in our lives has been influenced by science. ** <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #c0c0c0; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">What do you think is the MOST important scientific discovery that has contributed more to change the world then any other discovery? <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #c0c0c0; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Your answers will vary... but I believe it is **<span style="color: #808080; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">electricity **<span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">. <span style="color: #c0c0c0; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Every manufacturing plant, home, store, school, business, all means of transportation and communication, and all machines and technology depend on electricity <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">. **<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">But what is YOUR opinion? ** <span style="color: #c0c0c0; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">What do you think is the most important scientific discovery? <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #c0c0c0; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Science, therefore, has influenced society profoundly and is interwoven into every aspect of our lives. Modern society would not have flourished as it has without science. <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #808080; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Now here is a complete and accurate definition of science: <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">



<span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> ** The Influence of Society on Science ** <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> All that you have read so far is a simple picture of science. What I have explained is called “**Pure Science**”, the way science was meant to be by its early founders. But we live in a different, more complicated world than did Francis Bacon and Galileo Galilei.
 * <span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Students, this is what I want you to learn. ** <span style="color: #808080; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Scientific knowledge is reliable (trustworthy) and true for all people and cultures. It is gained by the objective scientific method and it is applied to technology for the benefit of society <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">.

Today science does not exist alone. It is connected to finance, large corporations, industry, large profits, fame, the government, and the military. Science has become a field that is far larger and more complex than solely seeking to know the laws of nature. Science in modern society is used for profit and power. This is no longer pure science.**
 * Modern Science is Used for Selfish purposes!


 * There are two types of science, Pure and Modern. "Modern Science" has been influenced by many factors in society**. It is often used as a way to make money or maybe to become famous. It can be used as a means to gain power and advancement. **Pure Science was created to help all people for good (altruistic) purposes**. **But modern science, unfortunately, is sometimes used for wrong or selfish purposes. It is the consciousness of the scientists (or his/her employer) that determines how he or she will use science**.

For example, the scientist who discovered the AIDS virus is from France. However, a famous American scientist was determined to discover the virus first, so he told the media in the United States to ignore the claims of the scientist from France. Three months later when the American scientist also discovered the HIV virus he told the media that he was the first (not the second) to find it and stole that prestige and credit from the scientist from France, who was actually the first to discover the virus. The American scientist became even more famous and pharmaceutical companies wanted to hire him and pay him a large salary. He used science as his way to gain fame and wealth. **But he cheated. He was unfair**. Well, eventually the French scientist proved that he was the first to discover the HIV virus and the American scientist was discredited, shamed before his fellow scientists and fined $200,000 for lying to the media.

Another example; Monsanto is a company that genetically modified the soy bean. Now they claim to own the genetic DNA of all soy beans. How can that be? No one owns elements of Nature. No one "owns" the wind, or water, or a type of tree or a type of bean. All of nature is public domain, no one "owns" nature. Now Monsanto sues and bankrupts soy farmers who will not comply to their demands. Monsanto uses science for selfish and harmful purposes.

<span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> **Scientists are Limited by Their Employers** <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> Scientists, today, are not totally free to do the research they want. Their employers direct them as to what to research, and then use that research to create new technology, which is then sold for profit. That is using science as a way to make profit, not necessarily for the good of society. Science that is conducted for the purpose of improving technology and for making better products to sell for profits is called “Applied Science”. Not all applied science is "bad". Often applied science can truly advance society. But applied science can also be conducted for less important reasons. This type of science is influenced by non-scientist businessmen who want their companies to grow in wealth and power to influence society.

If a scientist could invent a product that would help people, but it was not profitable, would his or her corporate employer want to manufacture that less profitable invention to improve society? Not likely. Many scientists will try to help society without the financial support of large corporations. But then they lack the funds to own expensive lab equipment and find it difficult to succeed. <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">There is a movie title, "Who Killed the Electric Car". It shows how General Motors manufactured a great little car that did not use gasoline and therefore had zero smog emissions. It was an environmentally friendly car that used only re-chargeable batteries. BUT the car was removed from the market and never sold again because the corporate oil companies didn't want society to transition to cars that did not require gasoline. <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> **Though science is entangled with fame and profit it is a very powerful way for mankind to improve itself. What do you think is the strength and weakness of science? Has science ever created a worse situation when it was trying to help?**

Next we'll look at the Scientific Method, which is at the very center of science

** The Scientific Method **<span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> The scientific method is a general guideline that scientists use to conduct their research and publish their results. Not all the steps listed below are used by every scientist in every research study.


 * But the overall purpose of the scientific method is to ensure that the knowledge it reveals is universally true, reliable and objective.**


 * The 7 Steps of the Scientific Method**:

1. Ask a question about nature. Have an interest or a hunch about how something works in nature. Do background research to see if other scientists have conducted research on the same interest and read their results.

[Here is the definition of Nature found in Wikipedia: **Nature**, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the **natural world**, **physical world**, or **material world**. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. It ranges in scale from the subatomic to the cosmic.] <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> 2. Make observations and inferences about the subject you are studying and begin to design an experiment.

3. Establish your hypothesis. Usually a hypothesis is defined as a “Good hunch”, or an “educated guess”. Again those are good definitions but they are too simple. A better definition of a hypothesis is a **“if…then…because” statement**. “**IF I do this experiment….THEN I expect to see these results…BECAUSE of these reasons**”. That is an “**if…then…because**” statement.

Here is an example: **IF** I give half of my students 2000 grams of vitamin C each day, **THEN** I expect them to have fewer colds and flues then the other half of my students (who took no vitamin C), **BECAUSE** vitamin C improves the immune system’s ability to fight colds and viruses.

That is the true form of a hypothesis.

4. Conduct the experiment/observations and write a paper describing the procedure and results.

5. Offer a theory for your results (which is similar to the “because” part of your hypothesis). Draw conclusion about your experiment. Did it support your hypothesis? If not suggest a better hypothesis.

6. Share your paper with the science community by publishing it in science journals.

7. Repeat the experiment with a better experimental design and encourage other scientists to do the same, **until conclusive results are established by the scientific community**.


 * Note that it is when the broader scientific community agrees that your theory is true that the scientific knowledge you uncovered becomes established as objective and reliable.**

Hypotheses that are supported by experiments become accepted theories. As theories are continued to be supported by more experiments they will become established scientific facts or laws of nature.**
 * Hypothesis >> Theories >> Laws


 * Theory vs. Law**

(First a theory, then after many similar experimental results…a law)

It is important to understand that when the experiment is being conducted the scientist is only testing his or her theory as to how nature may operate. A theory is an intelligent explanation of how or why something exists or is happening in nature. If the experiment produces expected results (according to the theory) that still does not mean that the new theory is correct. Some other scientists also have to repeat the experiment and see if they received the same results. If they do then a theory becomes accepted as reasonable and true among the scientific community.

Later when many scientists have produced similar results then the theory is accepted as an established law of science. A law is a phenomena or process that does exist in nature. The theory that expressed that process eventually becomes an established natural law agreed upon by the scientific community. Eventually the newly discovered law is published in textbooks at schools and colleges and you and I finally become aware of it.


 * Variables**

Variables are parts of the experiment. There are **3 main types of variables**. The first variable is what you are testing or experimenting on. Using the same example above of testing vitamin C… the effects of vitamin C on students’ illnesses is the first variable. It is called the **independent variable** because we are not doing anything to vitamin C. It is independent. The vitamin C is what we are introducing into the experiment to see its results on students' health.

The ability of the immune system to fight off colds is the second variable. It is called the **dependent variable** because the immune system’s ability to fight colds is influenced by, or is dependent on having vitamin C.

The students who didn’t take any vitamin C were the 3rd variable. They are called the **control variable** because they were left alone and where used as a **control group** to **compare** with the students who did take vitamin C.


 * Lastly, there are four types of questions scientists ask**:

1. Discovery Questions: Exploring the universe to discover what exists. 2. Origin Questions: From where, or how did something come into existence? What is its origin? 3. Process Questions: How does, or what is the processes by which this phenomena exists? 4. Applied Questions: How can we make some new technology or application from what we know already?