True Science Reflection #2
By dictionary definition, science is defined as the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. The irony of the matter is that in our grade school years, we are never actually given the opportunity to study the world through observation nor experiment. Contrarily, we are asked to “research” and evaluate matters that we can already provide an answer for without experimentation.
To a recent high school graduate, science takes a linear form where a question is asked of them, them providing an educated hypothesis, them conducting an experiment through conditions laid out in a handout, them referencing …show more content…
For example, in our first experiment when we were asked to investigate the nature of different objects and conduct a thought-out experiment based on our observations. Quite embarrassed, this task took my lab partners a while to figure out because we have been conditioned to already know a question to conduct an experiment with. Once we were placed in an uncomfortable situation where we had to OBSERVE, we came up with a multitude of questions that constantly lead us to a wall. Meaning, we had to revisit our steps and reflect on our errors to come up with an experiment that will have measurable results.
Speaking of attaining measurable results, our fifth experiment was determining the pH of solutions from visual indicators. Unfortunately, none of my group members have had experience with pH indicators. We each genuinely observed our environment for what it was, and not for what we were told it to be. After gathering samples and understanding how some colors are tainted with subjective human opinion as opposed to numerical facts, we found this project to be difficult. To attain answers in science, it is crucial to minimize human error and opinion to a
By dictionary definition, science is defined as the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. The irony of the matter is that in our grade school years, we are never actually given the opportunity to study the world through observation nor experiment. Contrarily, we are asked to “research” and evaluate matters that we can already provide an answer for without experimentation.
To a recent high school graduate, science takes a linear form where a question is asked of them, them providing an educated hypothesis, them conducting an experiment through conditions laid out in a handout, them referencing …show more content…
For example, in our first experiment when we were asked to investigate the nature of different objects and conduct a thought-out experiment based on our observations. Quite embarrassed, this task took my lab partners a while to figure out because we have been conditioned to already know a question to conduct an experiment with. Once we were placed in an uncomfortable situation where we had to OBSERVE, we came up with a multitude of questions that constantly lead us to a wall. Meaning, we had to revisit our steps and reflect on our errors to come up with an experiment that will have measurable results.
Speaking of attaining measurable results, our fifth experiment was determining the pH of solutions from visual indicators. Unfortunately, none of my group members have had experience with pH indicators. We each genuinely observed our environment for what it was, and not for what we were told it to be. After gathering samples and understanding how some colors are tainted with subjective human opinion as opposed to numerical facts, we found this project to be difficult. To attain answers in science, it is crucial to minimize human error and opinion to a