Science or Sensationalism?
Public perception often becomes the gateway to innovation and change. Therefore, and seemingly more now than ever, the media, private companies, and even public organizations may present information that contains political agendas, slanted/biased viewpoints, misleading statistics, or even blatant propaganda, in an effort either to influence popular opinion, or to further bolster the conventional beliefs and convictions of their target audience.
Read "Thoughts on the "Scientific Method": Part 1 - Ignorance Through Inconsistency" and "Thoughts on the Scientific Method": Part 2 - Frequentist Fecklessness," located within the required readings.
How would you classify these articles-are they creditable, factual, unbiased, etc., and why or why not? How could these environmental articles be used positively and negatively? Make sure your reasoning and examples differ from those that have already been posted.
Note: This activity will count for part of your participation points. Responses should be in complete sentences and a minimum of 100 words.
Discussion Question
- Choose an environmental issue from your textbook, or from your own personal experience, and explain how this environmental issue directly affects you. What is the role of environmental science in addressing this issue? What challenges do you believe are the obstacles that would hinder the recommendations of environmental scientists to address this environmental issue from being successfully implemented?
Scientific Method Matching Exercise Resource
In Part I, match each example from Column 2 with the correct step of the scientific method in Column 1. Explain the reasoning for your choice in Part II.
Part I
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Column 1: Scientific Method Steps
___ Observe
___ Ask a question
___ Create a hypothesis
___ Conduct an experiment
___ Collect data
___ Interpret results
___ Report results
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Column 2: Examples of Tasks
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a) A scientist, based on his observation of the pond, believes that if a pond is exposed to the waste of an industrial plant, then the growth of algae will be accelerated.
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b) In her laboratory, a scientist pours a vial of waste water, collected from the industrial plant, and adds it to a dish containing pond water. A second dish (the control dish), containing the same pond water, does not receive the waste water sample.
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c) A scientist wonders if the waste water emitted from an industrial plant is accelerating the growth of algae in a pond.
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d) After five days, the scientist measures the amount of algae present in each dish.
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e) The scientist submits his findings to a scientific journal.
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f) After the data is collected, the scientist discovers that the dish containing both the pond water and waste water had more than twice the amount of algae than the control dish.
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g) A scientist observes that a pond adjacent to an industrial plant has heavier algae growth than ponds farther away.
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Part II
Explain why you believe the "Examples of Task" (Column 2) that you selected is an example of the corresponding "Scientific Method Steps" (Column 1).
1) The "Examples of Tasks" I selected for the Scientific Method Step: "Observe", is accurate because:
2) The "Examples of Tasks" I selected for the Scientific Method Step: "Ask a question" is accurate because:
3) The "Examples of Tasks" I selected for the Scientific Method Step: "Create a hypothesis" is accurate because:
4) The "Examples of Tasks" I selected for the Scientific Method Step: "Conduct an experiment" is accurate because:
5) The "Examples of Tasks" I selected for the Scientific Method Step: "Collect data" is accurate because:
6) The "Examples of Tasks" I selected for the Scientific Method Step: "Interpret results" is accurate because:
7) The "Examples of Tasks" I selected for the Scientific Method Step: "Report results", is accurate because: