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TOP I C
1
Inquiry Skills and Processes
Science is both a body of knowledge and a way of knowing things. In the
scientific process, human thinking is applied to discovering and explain-
ing how the world works. Science originates when people ask questions.
At one time, “scientific” knowledge was just a collection of opinions
and unrelated ideas that attempted to explain observations. For example,
one hotly debated topic was whether Earth was flat or round. Those
believing that Earth was flat pointed to the fact that some ships never
returned home. (See Figure 1-1.) They offered this observation as
evidence
—support for the idea that something is true. They believed that
these ships had been destroyed when they sailed over Earth’s edge.
Those who believed that Earth was round also had evidence. They had
observed boats approaching land and noticed that the tops of the sails
became visible before the hull of the boat.
1.1 Science and Inquiry
VOCABULARY
assumption
dependent variable
independent variable
research plan
bias
evidence
inference
control group
experiment
observation
controlled experiment
hypothesis
opinion
Another formerly common idea was that living
organisms could come from nonliving things. Some
people believed that when conditions were just
right, frogs formed from the mud, water, and gases
at the bottom of a pond. People also thought that
if you left some grain and a dirty shirt in a wooden
box, mice would develop after a period of time.
Many people were certain that reproduction was
not necessary for life to form. This idea, too, was
discussed and debated.
Today, scientists do more than debate wheth-
er a new opinion or idea seems to make sense.
They develop explanations using observations as
evidence. New information is combined with what
people already know. Learning about the histori-
cal development of scientific concepts and about
the individuals who have contributed to scientific
knowledge helps us understand the thinking that
has taken place. At first, it might seem silly to
believe that Earth is flat, but based on observations
Figure 1-1.
Ships at sea:
At one time a flat Earth seemed to make sense.
[Figure 8-1]