What Is Science?
Science is a way of solving problems and answering questions. It is sharing ideas that can lead to new understanding. Your expectations should be one that is always prepared to unlearn yesterday's facts. Science didn't stop a few years before you were born or when our textbooks were written. It is ever changing. Science uses skills that you have already practiced. It uses the skills of language arts for communicating ideas, of math for collecting and organizing facts, and of social studies in learning useful knowledge handed down to us by others.
There isn't a requirement that you understand everything you do and the reason you are doing it. It is enough to have faith in the journey, a journey cultivated by the following attitudes of a scientist:
Curiosity provides the catalyst for opportunity and adventure.
Skepticism [QUESTIONING] doesn't mean being quick to criticize or be unreceptive to new ideas. It mean questioning ideas until you are satisfied that the evidence does or does not support those ideas.
Open-mindedness [TRYING NEW THINGS] listening to what others have to say requires holding off making quick judgments until sufficient experience and feedback has occurred so that informed decisions can be made.
Reflection [STUDYING] is time spent thinking and wondering. During this time your mind is open to new ideas and your life is made richer as you search for answers |
