CUNY Hunter College Nature Of Science Explanatory Narrative Discussion Questions

Nature Of Science Explanatory Narrative Discussion Questions

Question #1: What role does experimentation play in the biological sciences? 

Student answer #1: “Biology, like all sciences, is only able to create new knowledge and understanding through experimentation. A scientific study without experimentation is not considered rigorous enough for publication and cannot be taken seriously. Experiments make science objective by removing creativity and subjectivity. As a result, scientists are able to be completely objective when they report their results.”

Question #2: What are the relationships between biological facts, hypotheses, theories, and laws? 

Student answer #2: “Hypothesis testing is an important part of biology. Hypotheses, which can be defined as “educated guesses,” will eventually become theories when they have been confirmed multiple times by different scientists. When theories have become proven, they will become known as laws. Laws, given their important status in science, can be considered absolute truths that cannot be violated.” 

Question #3: Can biological information be proven? 

Student answer #3: “Biologists use a standardized scientific method to test hypotheses in order to prove that they are correct or incorrect. Once a hypothesis is proven to be correct, it should be treated as a fact and it would be a waste of resources for people to continue to study that question because the answer is already known. It is a scientist’s job to prove that their hypotheses are correct.”

Question #4: What are biological models and why are they developed? 

Student answer #4: “Many biologists study things that are very small and sometimes these things cannot be seen with the naked eye, such as a cell. As a result, sometimes, biologists create models, which are physical replicas used to show other people what small things look like. It’s important that biologists create these replicas because it’s impossible to make hypotheses about something that cannot be seen with our own eyes.”