1.1. What Is Science? http://www.ck12.org
1.1 What Is Science?
Lesson Objectives
- Define science.
- Explain how scientists use induction.
- Distinguish between scientific theories and laws.
- Describe milestones in the history of science.
- Identify contributions of women and minorities to science.
Lesson Vocabulary
- induction
- science
- scientific law
- scientific theory
Introduction
Understanding the "hows" and "whys" of the world is the goal of science. The term science comes from a Latin word
that means "having knowledge." But science is as much about adding to knowledge as it is about having knowledge.
Science is a way of thinking as well as a set of facts.Sciencecan be defined as a way of learning about the natural
world that is based on evidence and logic.
Thinking Like a Scientist
Are you like the teen inFigure1.1? Do you ever wonder why things happen? Do you like to find out how things
work? If so, then you are already thinking like a scientist. Scientists also wonder how and why things happen. They
are curious about the world. To answer their questions, they make many observations. Then they use logic to draw
general conclusions.
Induction
Drawing general conclusions from many individual observations is calledinduction. It is a hallmark of scientific
thinking. To understand how induction works, think about this simple example. Assume you know nothing about
gravity. In fact, pretend you’ve never even heard of gravity. Perhaps you notice that whenever you let go of an object
it falls to the ground. For example, you drop a book, and it crashes to the floor. Your pencil rolls to the edge of the