Famous Questions
This Russian physiologist noticed that his dogs began salivating before food arrived, leading him to investigate learned associations.
Who is Pavlov?
A question that can be answered by collecting evidence is described by this word.
What is testable?
“Does using your phone cause poor mental health because it reduces sleep?” contains several different outcomes and explanations. It has too many of these.
What are variables?
This type of claim cannot be disproved by any possible experimental result.
What is a non-falsifiable claim?
“Does increased screen time affect reported anxiety?” This asks what the scientist wants to investigate.
What is a research question?
This scientist famously tested what white light was made up of and found it to be comprised of every color in the visible spectrum.
Who is Isaac Newton?
“Why is exercise good?” becomes much stronger when you define this: what exactly you will measure.
What is a variable?
“Does temperature affect how quickly sugar dissolves?” is this type of question because you could collect measurements to answer it.
What is a testable scientific question?
A proposed explanation that does NOT identify an explicit relationship between what is manipulated and what is measured is missing these two essential variables.
What are the independent and dependent variables?
“Students with increased screen time will report higher anxiety.” This is a specific prediction that can be tested.
What is a hypothesis?
These two scientists used nitrogen isotopes to determine how DNA replicates.
Who are Meselson and Stahl?
A question that asks “Why does everything happen?” is difficult to investigate because it has too wide of this.
What is scope?
“What is the most beautiful color?” is difficult to investigate scientifically because this term is subjective and undefined.
What is “beautiful”?
A hypothesis that does not consider initial observations and goes beyond existing limitations lacks THIS.
What is a reasonable scope?
This is a comprehensive explanation of natural phenomena supported by extensive evidence and repeated attempts at falsification.
What is a scientific theory?
This man proposed that hypothesis must be falsifiable, meaning it must risk being proven wrong.
Who is Karl Popper?
Horoscopes, supernatural entities etc. all fall under this type of claim.
“Is pizza better than tacos?” could potentially be investigated, but researchers would first need to define how this word will be measured.
What is “better”?
What is ampliative?
This is an abstract concept, mathematical framework used to isolate and simulate specific mechanisms or a changing hypothesis.
What is a scientific model?
This scientist famously wondered what force could explain why objects fall toward Earth and why planets move through space.
Who is Isaac Newton?
This is another term for when a hypothesis is deemed tentative or a pre-stage hypothesis.
What is a working model?
“Why does the universe exist?” is a fascinating question, but it may fall outside the scope of this approach because it cannot easily be answered through an experiment.
What is empirical science/empirical testing?
A good hypothesis requires the ability to measure, observe and lead to data collection. It must inherently be __________.
What is empircally testable?
A hypothesis has repeatedly survived rigorous attempts to disprove it and has accumulated extensive supporting evidence. It can contribute to this broader scientific explanation.
What is a scientific theory?