Scientific Method
Testable explanation for occurrences in the natural world.
What is a hypothesis?
Derived from the latin word scire which means to know.
What is Science?
An experiment conducted in the natural environment by observing natural phenomena and interpret a causal relationship between variables
What is a natural experiment?
This word is never used to describe any findings.
What is proof?
A set of moral principles or values that can be used to govern decision-making and behavior for an individual or group.
What are ethics?
Gathered in order to make a conclusion.
What is data?
Variable that is changed in any experiment.
What is an independent variable?
Experiment where conditions are deliberately altered and all other variables are held constant.
What is a manipulative experiment?
An explanation has been supported by a large number of tests and a majority of experts have reached a general consensus that is a reliable description or explanation.
What is Scientific Theory?
Use of ideas, images, words of another person without acknowledging the source.
What is plagiarism?
Determination as to whether or not the hypothesis was correct. Usually done after interpreting results.
What is a conclusion?
Variable that is measured in every experiment.
What is a dependent variable?
Experiment conducted in which there is a treatment group and a control group.
What is a controlled study?
Ideas and information are exchanged, debated, tested and retested to arrive at a general agreement among informed scholars.
What is scientific consensus?
Inventing new data or results to lie or mislead in your work.
What is a fabrication?
An experiment is designed in order to test the hypothesis.
What is experimental design?
Repeating of studies or tests in order to gain the same results.
What is replication?
Form of experiment where a researcher has no part in the running of the experiment and only looks at results in order to avoid bias.
What is a blind experiment?
Basic patterns and processes are uniform across time and space; the forces at work today are the same as those that shaped the world in the past and they will continue to do so in the future.
What is uniformitarianism?
Arranging data or misreporting results to support a claim that the data do not necessarily support.
What is a manipulation?
A phenomena is seen that one desires to study and/or test.
What is an observation?
Scientists demand this in order to confirm that is worth of belief due to being cautious about accepting conclusions.
What is reproducibility?
A form of experiment where neither the subject (who receives a drug or placebo) nor the researcher knows who is in the treatment group or the control group.
What is a double-blind experiment?
New ideas emerge that cause major shifts in scientific consensus.
What is a paradigm shift?
Using only some data to support the desired result.
What is cherry-picking?