Olson's Science

What is science?

 

Science is two very distinct and complementary ideas.  If you were to ask the “average person” on the street what they think science is, most would only answer the first half - but the second half is just as important!

• Science is a body of knowledge (another way to say it is that it is a listing of facts).

• Science is a methodology (or a process) of discovery.

 

One thing you can do to see if something is science is to go through the following checklist!

• Focus on the Natural World

• Aims to explain the Natural World

• Uses testable ideas

• Relies upon evidence

• Involves the scientific community

• Leads to ongoing research

• Benefits from scientific behavior

 

Science does have limits:  Science is typically presented as linear in nature - see the prototypical scientific method - you start with a hypothesis, then you experiment to test it, gather and analyse the data, then form a conclusion.  Well, it really isn’t that linear in practice.  After the fact, it is often presented linearly as it does accurately represent the core logic; but the process often involves a lot of back and forth, going around, and mixing things up as one proceeds.  However, as a high school student, you ARE typically presenting an “after the fact”, so using this is very appropriate. 

Some other limits to science include:

• Science does not make moral judgments

• Science does not make aesthetic judgments

• Science does not tell you how to use knowledge

• Science does not draw conclusions about supernatural explanations (science deals with the Natural World!)

 

So, if you are finding this difficult to understand, or would just like some more, you can click HERE to go to the UC Berkeley web page where they go into depth on the subject.