Big Idea 2: The Characteristics of Scientific Knowledge

For an idea to be classified as scientific, it must have been subjected to the rigors of scientific inquiry (scientific method).

Type: Lesson Plan

Scientists and engineers, who know a lot about technology, worked together to create satellites so many different things could be studied. In this lesson, students will learn about the launch of the Swift satellite and the data that the satellite collects and sends to Earth. The focus of the lesson is on the people involved in the project and their careers and cooperative activities. Students also explore the different job roles in the development of satellites and web pages used to communicate scientific discoveries from those satellites, with a particular focus on gamma ray bursts.

Type: Lesson Plan

The students will differentiate between scientific and pseudoscientific ideas.
Content statements:

• Scientific claims must follow basic fundamentals of science and scientific laws.
• Scientific ideas are supported by a large amount of data, usually from experiments.
• Scientific claims can be tested and the results can be replicated.

Type: Lesson Plan

Learn about the tools of science as we look at the mystery of bird migrations in this interactive tutorial. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn the differences between science and pseudoscience in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Resource provides a succinct overview of the nature of science; what science is and is not. Information includes the aims of scientific pursuits, principles, process and thinking.

Type: Presentation/Slideshow

This brief article summarizes the research-based rationale for using inquiry-based activities in their classrooms. It also provides specific suggestions to help teachers plan lessons that encourage students to generate predictions based on hypotheses, design investigations to test the validity of their ideas, and utilize questioning techniques to promote critical thinking.

Type: Professional Development

Through a student administered survey, friends and family members share their perception of science and the scientific process. This information is then shared with classmates to create a picture of the community's knowledge about, and comfort level with, science. By the end of this lesson, students will have a better understanding of what science is and isn't after exploring and discussing the implications of scientific literacy.

Type: Project

Explores six criteria of science (CONPTT), with definitions and self-check questions. Compares "Emerging Science", "Non-Science", and "Pseudoscience", with definitions and examples. Activity engages students in analyzing a collection of paragraphs to decide which category each fits into.

Type: Teaching Idea

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Written by two scientists, the article explains how "hard sciences" and "soft sciences" are different. The authors list the five concepts that characterize scientifically rigorous studies and determine that, while not inferior, social sciences like economics are not truly "scientific."

Type: Text Resource

This is a Comprehension Instructional Unit on the characteristics of science and pseudoscience. There are 2 files: the CIS unit with questions and culminating activity and the article itself. This correlates with the 8th grade Holt Fusion textbook in Unit 1, Lesson 1.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

This video clip explores some of the possible theories that might help explain what causes gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Scientists have only been studying GRBs since 1967, even though they originated billions of years ago. Once they were found, it took scientists another four years to determine what these flashes of nuclear energy were.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation