List of NOS and SI ideas

A. Scientific knowledge
1. Tentative and subject to change
2. Socially and culturally embedded
3. Based on and/or derived from observation of the natural world (i.e. empirically based)
4. Requires creativity and imagination
5. Science is process of ongoing inquiry
6. Science advances through reasonable skepticism
7. Science is affected by the technology and equipment available at the time
B. Scientific method

8.

The major steps in scientific inquiry include: observation, asking questions, proposing
hypotheses, making predictions and testing the hypotheses, drawing conclusions

9.

There is no single set and sequence of steps in all scientific investigations, i.e. there is no
single scientific method (e.g. hypotheses and experiments are not required in some
investigations)

10. Scientific investigations all begin with a question on some natural phenomena
11. Inquiry procedures are guided by the questions asked / hypotheses made
12. Observations are theory-laden
13. Science is based on both observation and inference
14. Hypotheses are tentative explanations of natural phenomena that can be tested
15. Proposal of hypotheses / building of models requires observations, background knowledge,
logical reasoning and creative imagination
16. Proposal of hypotheses is not required in scientific investigations which are not concerned
with explaining observations
17. A hypothesis is supported as long as it can be used to give satisfactory explanations to all the
observed phenomena
18. Experiments are tests carried out in nature or laboratory by manipulating and controlling
conditions under which observations are made
19. Scientists have to explore with different techniques and methods to find the best solution to a
problem
20. A good scientific experiment should include carefully designed controls
21. A control is a version of experiment in which everything is the same except the single factor
being tested
22. Scientific investigations need not necessarily be doing experiments
23. Research conclusions must be based on the data collected
24. Research conclusions should neither be over-cautious nor over-generalized
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25. The same investigative procedures may not necessarily get the same results /conclusions
26. Different investigative procedures may come to the same results /conclusions
C. Scientific community / attitude

27. Scientists build on the work of other scientists

28. Scientists are collaborative and competitive by nature
29. Scientists have to be open minded
30. Scientists only dissect animals or do experiments on them when necessary and ethically sound.
31. The success of scientific investigation is the result of dedication, ingenuity and luck
D. Data and their limitations
32. Scientific data are not the same as scientific evidence.
33. Scientists having the same set of data may not necessarily arrive at the same conclusions
34. Use of consistent units enables convenient sharing and comparison of data
35. Large sample size, random samples and repeated measurements are important in scientific
investigations
36. Scientists sometimes have to work with the second best data
E. Theory, Law and Assumption
37. Laws are descriptive statements of relationships among observable phenomena. Theories are
the explanations of those relationships.
38. Assumption is the acceptance of something to be true without proof.