Teaching a Lesson Without Language-No Way
After participating in last classes conversation on language, I view language as all forms of communication. There would be no way to teach a lesson without language. In my mind, language encompasses sign language, oral language, and thinking. Even thinking about what you are about to say uses language because without it, what would we think? In class we discussed whether a simple expo marker was language and most of the class decided that it was. Since we all thought "pen" in our minds when we looked at it, we used language to identify it as such.
Data vs. Evidence
Our class came across the discussion of whether information was data or evidence when completing the Mr. Xavier activity. The story of Mr. Xavier's unfortunate death (possibly a lion?) had many examples of both data and evidence. From class discussion, we deduced that data is factual information that can be qualitative or quantitative and supports evidence. Evidence is relevant, observable data that is constructed to fit a theory and used to make inferences.
It was difficult at first to try to pick which statements were data or evidence, but after using our constructed definitions it became easier.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
What is Science?
What is Science?
Science is making a hypothesis and testing your ideas to design a scientific theory. Any hypothesis you create needs to have steps and procedures that others can repeat. If an experiment is only completed one time, it is not clear whether the same results will occur when the experiment is done again. When a hypothesis has been tested over and over with the same results, it may become a theory. Whether a hypothesis becomes a theory is under the discretion of a group of scientific people believing it is truth. Though a scientific hypothesis can never become fact because there are too many variables.
When related to the Mystery Tubes activity we did in class, our group also had to come up with a hypothesis. We did this by first playing with the mystery tube and determining what should move with each string pull. We then designed the string pattern for the inside of the mystery tube. Once the entire class decided on one model, it essentially became our class theory. Though again, this can never become fact because we had no absolute way to know how the strings were designed within the tube.
What is the role of language in science?
Language is incredibly important in the world of science for many different reasons. Since a theory is created from the compilation of varying scientists experiments, there needs to be a way for scientists to view the results from prior experiments. Language is essential in this case, because without it there would be no way to divulge exactly what steps and results another scientist had. Language is needed for communication between scientists.
Language in science is a lot different than casual language. When writing a scientific paper, it is more likely to be factual and direct than with an average english paper. Scientific language has to be extremely precise for people to repeat experiments and understand journals. Specific words can be essential to language definitions in science. In class we discussed how if the word "Semipermeable" is left out of the definition for Osmosis, it changes the meaning of the definition.
Science is making a hypothesis and testing your ideas to design a scientific theory. Any hypothesis you create needs to have steps and procedures that others can repeat. If an experiment is only completed one time, it is not clear whether the same results will occur when the experiment is done again. When a hypothesis has been tested over and over with the same results, it may become a theory. Whether a hypothesis becomes a theory is under the discretion of a group of scientific people believing it is truth. Though a scientific hypothesis can never become fact because there are too many variables.
When related to the Mystery Tubes activity we did in class, our group also had to come up with a hypothesis. We did this by first playing with the mystery tube and determining what should move with each string pull. We then designed the string pattern for the inside of the mystery tube. Once the entire class decided on one model, it essentially became our class theory. Though again, this can never become fact because we had no absolute way to know how the strings were designed within the tube.
What is the role of language in science?
Language is incredibly important in the world of science for many different reasons. Since a theory is created from the compilation of varying scientists experiments, there needs to be a way for scientists to view the results from prior experiments. Language is essential in this case, because without it there would be no way to divulge exactly what steps and results another scientist had. Language is needed for communication between scientists.
Language in science is a lot different than casual language. When writing a scientific paper, it is more likely to be factual and direct than with an average english paper. Scientific language has to be extremely precise for people to repeat experiments and understand journals. Specific words can be essential to language definitions in science. In class we discussed how if the word "Semipermeable" is left out of the definition for Osmosis, it changes the meaning of the definition.
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