Download or read book Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method written by Henry H. Bauer and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is science? Is social science a science? Why are more and more so-called scientific discoveries being exposed as outright frauds? Henry Bauer tackles these and many more intriguing questions that are emerging from within the academic and scientific communities and attracting attention from the popular media and the general public. Whether one is a specialist or generalist, scientist or humanist, thinker or activist, it is important to understand the place of science and technology in modern life. Popular views about the nature of science and scientific activity contain serious misconceptions that were discarded decades ago by most historians and philosophers of science. The perpetuation of these misconceptions usually surface in the form of frustrating and unproductive discussions about everything from setting policy and defining technical matters to whether one individual's point of view is ''right'' because it is supported by ''scientific facts.'' According to Bauer, the most serious and widespread misconceptions are that ''science'' can be discussed as though all sciences share a great deal in common and as though ''the scientific method'' characterizes all sciences. ''Science,'' argues Bauer, ''can be understood only if one recognizes it as a quest by fallible human beings who have evolved ways of interacting that help them gain relatively objective knowledge.'' In other words, science is a social activity, not simply the result of impersonal methods. Concern has recently arisen over the quality of American education and our declining scientific and research orientation. Debates are emerging about what direction public universities should be taking as we head into the twenty-fist century. Why and to what extent should society support basic scientific research? What should everyone in a democratic society know about science? This book will help readers come to an informed understanding about the place of science and technology in today's world.''Provocative. . . . Bauer argues that science does not proceed by the scientific method. If it did, experiments would inspire hypotheses which would then be tested until they generated reliable theories. As Watson and Crick's work [on DNA] shows, an elegant idea is often a headier lure than mere facts.''--Newsweek ''Sound, sensible . . . and very easy to read. . . . I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who hasn't yet heard that the scientific method is a myth.''--Science ''This is a book that every science teacher should read and consider. It will certainly affect their views of what science really is and influence their teaching.''--The Science Teacher

Download or read book The Myth of Scientific Literacy written by Morris Herbert Shamos and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shamos argues that a meaningful scientific literacy cannot be achieved in the first place, and the attempt is a misuse of human resources on a grand scale. He is skeptical about forecasts of "critical shortfalls in scientific manpower" and about the motives behind crash programs to get more young people into the science pipeline.

Download or read book Technological Forms and Ecological Communication written by Piyush Mathur and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-09-25 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Investigating the phenomena of technology, science, technique, and mass communication, Piyush Mathur contends that the enterprise of science communication may be misleading vis-à-vis technology—if in part because it frequently coextends with a flawed, but dominant, notion of science that presumptuously implicates technology anyway. Grappling with what authentically constitutes science and the prospective effects of its realization on a global future of mass communication, Mathur explores how various technological forms play specifically into ecologically sensitive mass communication. The result is an eco-communicative theory of technology that includes its classification based upon a set of qualitative principles and a profile of the notion of development. On the whole, though, Technological Forms and Ecological Communication: A Theoretical Heuristic brings the fields of philosophy and history of science, philosophy and sociology of technology, communication studies, and development studies into conversation with one another.

Download or read book Science Matters written by Robert M. Hazen and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2009-06-09 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A science book for the general reader that is informative enough to be a popular textbook and yet well-written enough to appeal to general readers. “Hazen and Trefil [are] unpretentious—good, down-to-earth, we-can-explain-anything science teachers, the kind you wish you had but never did.”—The New York Times Book Review Knowledge of the basic ideas and principles of science is fundamental to cultural literacy. But most books on science are often too obscure or too specialized to do the general reader much good. Science Matters is a rare exception—a science book that is informative enough for introductory courses in high school and college, and yet lucid enough for readers uncomfortable with scientific jargon and complicated mathematics. And now, revised and expanded, it is up-to-date, so that readers can enjoy Hazen and Trefil's refreshingly accessible explanations of the most recent developments in science, from particle physics to biotechnology.

Download or read book Newton s Apple and Other Myths about Science written by Ronald L. Numbers and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-04 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Guardian “Favourite Reads—as Chosen by Scientists” Selection “Tackles some of science’s most enduring misconceptions.” —Discover A falling apple inspired Isaac Newton’s insight into the law of gravity—or did it really? Among the many myths debunked in this refreshingly irreverent book are the idea that alchemy was a superstitious pursuit, that Darwin put off publishing his theory of evolution for fear of public reprisal, and that Gregor Mendel was ahead of his time as a pioneer of genetics. More recent myths about particle physics and Einstein’s theory of relativity are discredited too, and a number of dubious generalizations, like the notion that science and religion are antithetical, or that science can neatly be distinguished from pseudoscience, go under the microscope of history. Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science brushes away popular fictions and refutes the widespread belief that science advances when individual geniuses experience “Eureka!” moments and suddenly grasp what those around them could never imagine. “Delightful...thought-provoking...Every reader should find something to surprise them.” —Jim Endersby, Science “Better than just countering the myths, the book explains when they arose and why they stuck.” —The Guardian

Download or read book Good Science Bad Science Pseudoscience and Just Plain Bunk written by Peter Daempfle and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are constantly bombarded with breaking scientific news in the media, but we are almost never provided with enough information to assess the truth of these claims. Does drinking coffee really cause cancer? Does bisphenol-A in our tin can linings really cause reproductive damage? Good Science, Bad Science, Pseudoscience, and Just Plain Bunk teaches readers how to think like a scientist to question claims like these more critically. Peter A. Daempfle introduces readers to the basics of scientific inquiry, defining what science is and how it can be misused. Through provocative real-world examples, the book helps readers acquire the tools needed to distinguish scientific truth from myth. The book celebrates science and its role in society while building scientific literacy.

Download or read book Science Literacy written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2016-11-14 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science is a way of knowing about the world. At once a process, a product, and an institution, science enables people to both engage in the construction of new knowledge as well as use information to achieve desired ends. Access to scienceâ€"whether using knowledge or creating itâ€"necessitates some level of familiarity with the enterprise and practice of science: we refer to this as science literacy. Science literacy is desirable not only for individuals, but also for the health and well- being of communities and society. More than just basic knowledge of science facts, contemporary definitions of science literacy have expanded to include understandings of scientific processes and practices, familiarity with how science and scientists work, a capacity to weigh and evaluate the products of science, and an ability to engage in civic decisions about the value of science. Although science literacy has traditionally been seen as the responsibility of individuals, individuals are nested within communities that are nested within societiesâ€"and, as a result, individual science literacy is limited or enhanced by the circumstances of that nesting. Science Literacy studies the role of science literacy in public support of science. This report synthesizes the available research literature on science literacy, makes recommendations on the need to improve the understanding of science and scientific research in the United States, and considers the relationship between scientific literacy and support for and use of science and research.

Download or read book The Scientific Method written by Henry M. Cowles and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The surprising history of the scientific method—from an evolutionary account of thinking to a simple set of steps—and the rise of psychology in the nineteenth century. The idea of a single scientific method, shared across specialties and teachable to ten-year-olds, is just over a hundred years old. For centuries prior, science had meant a kind of knowledge, made from facts gathered through direct observation or deduced from first principles. But during the nineteenth century, science came to mean something else: a way of thinking. The Scientific Method tells the story of how this approach took hold in laboratories, the field, and eventually classrooms, where science was once taught as a natural process. Henry M. Cowles reveals the intertwined histories of evolution and experiment, from Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection to John Dewey’s vision for science education. Darwin portrayed nature as akin to a man of science, experimenting through evolution, while his followers turned his theory onto the mind itself. Psychologists reimagined the scientific method as a problem-solving adaptation, a basic feature of cognition that had helped humans prosper. This was how Dewey and other educators taught science at the turn of the twentieth century—but their organic account was not to last. Soon, the scientific method was reimagined as a means of controlling nature, not a product of it. By shedding its roots in evolutionary theory, the scientific method came to seem far less natural, but far more powerful. This book reveals the origin of a fundamental modern concept. Once seen as a natural adaptation, the method soon became a symbol of science’s power over nature, a power that, until recently, has rarely been called into question.

Download or read book Gaither s Dictionary of Scientific Quotations written by Carl C. Gaither and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-01-05 with total page 2800 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unprecedented collection of 27,000 quotations is the most comprehensive and carefully researched of its kind, covering all fields of science and mathematics. With this vast compendium you can readily conceptualize and embrace the written images of scientists, laymen, politicians, novelists, playwrights, and poets about humankind's scientific achievements. Approximately 9000 high-quality entries have been added to this new edition to provide a rich selection of quotations for the student, the educator, and the scientist who would like to introduce a presentation with a relevant quotation that provides perspective and historical background on his subject. Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations, Second Edition, provides the finest reference source of science quotations for all audiences. The new edition adds greater depth to the number of quotations in the various thematic arrangements and also provides new thematic categories.

Download or read book Science Literacy in Primary Schools and Pre Schools written by Haim Eshach and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-08-12 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This well-written and thought-provoking book presents the state-of-the-art in science education for kindergarten and primary schools. It begins with a thorough theoretical discussion on why it is incumbent on the science educator to teach science at first stages of childhood. It goes on to analyze and synthesize a broad range of educational approaches and themes. The book also presents novel strategies to science teaching.

Download or read book Searching for Literacy written by Harvey J. Graff and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-08-21 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a critical account of the development of questions, approaches, methods, and understandings of literacy within and across disciplines and interdisciplines. It provides a critique of literacy studies, including the New Literacy Studies. This book completes a series that the author began in the 1970s. It criticizes and revises the New Literacy Studies and how we think about literacy generally. It is a revisionist study which argues that literacy and literacy studies are historical developments and must be understood in those terms to comprehend their profound impact on our traditions of thinking about and understanding literacy, and how we study it. Graff argues that literacy studies in its academic, institutional, and policy forums, but also in popular parlance, has lost its critical foundations, and this hinders efforts to promote literacy. He examines literacy over time and across linguistics; anthropology; psychology; reading and writing across modes of communication and comprehension; “new” literacies across digital, visual, performance, numerical, and scientific domains; and history. He underscores the value of new directions of negotiation and translation. This book will interest scholars and students in the many fields that constitute literacy studies across the humanities, social sciences, education, and beyond.

Download or read book Solving Everyday Problems With The Scientific Method Thinking Like A Scientist Second Edition written by Don K Mak and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2016-12-21 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes how one can use The Scientific Method to solve everyday problems including medical ailments, health issues, money management, traveling, shopping, cooking, household chores, etc. It illustrates how to exploit the information collected from our five senses, how to solve problems when no information is available for the present problem situation, how to increase our chances of success by redefining a problem, and how to extrapolate our capabilities by seeing a relationship among heretofore unrelated concepts.One should formulate a hypothesis as early as possible in order to have a sense of direction regarding which path to follow. Occasionally, by making wild conjectures, creative solutions can transpire. However, hypotheses need to be well-tested. Through this way, The Scientific Method can help readers solve problems in both familiar and unfamiliar situations. Containing real-life examples of how various problems are solved — for instance, how some observant patients cure their own illnesses when medical experts have failed — this book will train readers to observe what others may have missed and conceive what others may not have contemplated. With practice, they will be able to solve more problems than they could previously imagine.In this second edition, the authors have added some more theories which they hope can help in solving everyday problems. At the same time, they have updated the book by including quite a few examples which they think are interesting.

Download or read book Science Or Pseudoscience written by Henry H. Bauer and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2004-07 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A book that all scientists should read, and a book that all who are interested in the unexplainable will want to read, Bauer explores how examining anomalies have profited humankind and restores the respectability--and necessity--of such pursuits in a fascinating overview of science and the pursuit of the unknown. Although science attempts to draw a clear line separating its endeavours from those of "pseudoscience," Henry Bauer reveals that the distinction is both equivocal and misleading. Setting aside science's snowy mantle of truth, Bauer presents pseudoscience--or anomalistics--not as the opposite of science but as something that develops parallel to it. Science assumes anomalies--that is, phenomena that contradict the existing store of knowledge--result from error, contamination, or even deception: in short, from bad research technique, at best, and deliberate hoax, at worst. Anomalists, by contrast, accept such occurrences, often on the basis of eyewitness claims, as important in themselves and worthy of further study, even if they contradict prevailing theories and offer a minimal degree of reproducibility.Science or Pseudoscience explores the diffuse and porous borders between mainstream and unorthodoxy. A scientist himself, Bauer points out that some phenomena that have turned out to be spurious, such as polywater and cold fusion, were for a time taken quite seriously by respected members of the scientific community. Other anomalies, such as ball lightning and meteorites, were dismissed by many scientists but turned out to be legitimate discoveries. Meanwhile, science has failed to prove that phenomena encompassed by the "big three" subjects in anomalistics--parapsychology, ufology, and cryptozoology (e.g., the Loch Ness monster)--do not exist. Rather, science theorizes that these phenomena cannot exist, since today's scientific laws seem to hold them to be impossible. Bauer discusses anomalies such as archaeoastronomy (e.g., Stonehenge) and bioelectromagnetics and looks at how institutional, commercial, and political interests influence borderline research in mainstream laboratories. He also draws a distinction between fraud and commercial huckstering, on the one hand, and genuine knowledge-seeking about matters ignored by the established intellectual disciplines, on the other. Bauer notes that the more closely anomalistic research approaches science, the more strenuously it is criticized by the establishment, often in terms of heresy. Reminding us that geniuses are cranks who happen to be right while cranks may be geniuses who happen to be wrong, Science or Pseudoscience offers a measured and thoughtful assessment of this volatile debate.

Download or read book Ethics and the Practice of Forensic Science written by Robin T. Bowen and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2017-09-20 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While one would hope that forensic scientists, investigators, and experts are intrinsically ethical by nature, the reality is that these individuals have morality as varied as the general population. These professionals confront ethical dilemmas every day, some with clear-cut protocols and others that frequently have no definitive answers. Since the publication of the first edition of Ethics and the Practice of Forensic Science, the field of forensic science has continued to see its share of controversy. This runs the gamut of news stories from investigators, lab personnel, or even lab directors falsifying results, committing perjury, admitting to fraud, to overturned convictions, questions about bias, ethics, and what constitutes an "expert" on the witness stand. This fully updated edition tackles all these issues—including some specific instances and cases of unethical behavior—and addresses such salient issues as accreditation requirements, standardization of ethical codes, examiner certification, and standards for education and training. The new edition provides: A new chapter on the "Ferguson Effect" faced by the criminal justice system The context of forensic science ethics in relation to general scientific ethics, measurement uncertainty, and ethics in criminal justice Ethical conundrums and real-world examples that forensic scientists confront every day The ethics and conduct codes of 20 different forensic and scientific professional organizations An outline of the National Academies of Science (NAS) recommendations and progress made on ethics in forensic science since the release of the NAS report Ethics and the Practice of Forensic Science, Second Edition explores the range of ethical issues facing those who work in the forensic sciences—highlights the complicated nature of ethics and decision-making at the crime scene, in the lab, and in the courts. The book serves both as an essential resource for laboratories to train their employees and as an invaluable textbook for the growing number of courses on ethics in criminal justice and forensic science curricula. Accompanying PowerPoint® slides and an Instructor’s Manual with Test Bank are available to professors upon qualifying course adoption.

Download or read book Developing Scientific Literacy Using News Media In The Classroom written by Jarman, Ruth and published by McGraw-Hill Education (UK). This book was released on 2007-03-01 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Developing Scientific Literacy addresses the gap of the revelance of science in everyday life, offering a much-needed framework for teachers wishing to explore ‘science in the media’ in secondary schools or colleges.

Download or read book Towards Scientific Literacy written by Derek Hodson and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a guide for teachers, student teachers, teacher educators, science education researchers and curriculum developers who wish to get to grips with the vast and complex literature encompassing the history of science, philosophy of science and sociology of science (HPS).

Download or read book The Nature of Science in Science Education written by W.F. McComas and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-04-11 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to blend a justification for the inclusion of the history and philosophy of science in science teaching with methods by which this vital content can be shared with a variety of learners. It contains a complete analysis of the variety of tools developed thus far to assess learning in this domain. This book is relevant to science methods instructors, science education graduate students and science teachers.