Exercise 2-1A: Natural Science Methods

Visit ScienceDaily.com, a website that compiles brief news reports about recent scientific studies. Choose a topic that interests you, and search for recent studies in the search bar. 

• First, see if you can find a study on your topic for each of the four main methods of scientific study: observation, experimentation, modeling and theorizing, and computation. You can use the chart below to keep track of your sources.

• Next, write a paragraph about your findings. Did you find a range of methods being used for this topic? If so, why do you think that is? If not, why not? What do your findings tell us about the methods scientists use to research your topic? How do you think these methods change what scientists in those fields write?

• Post your findings paragraph to Forums on Sakai.

For an editable Google doc of this exercise that you can download, click here.