1. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful
questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis
for understanding this concept and addressing the content in
the other four strands, students should develop their own
questions and perform investigations. Students will:
a. Select and use appropriate tools and
technology (such as computer-linked probes, spreadsheets,
and graphing calculators) to perform tests, collect data,
analyze relationships, and display data.
b. Identify and communicate sources of unavoidable
experimental error.
c. Identify possible reasons for inconsistent results,
such as sources of error or uncontrolled conditions.
d. Formulate explanations by using logic and evidence.
e. Solve scientific problems by using quadratic
equations and simple trigonometric, exponential, and
logarithmic functions.
f. Distinguish between hypothesis and theory as
scientific terms.
g. Recognize the usefulness and limitations of models
and theories as scientific representations of reality.
h. Read and interpret topographic and geologic maps.
i. Analyze the locations, sequences, or time intervals
that are characteristic of natural phenomena (e.g.,
relative ages of rocks, locations of planets over time,
and succession of species in an ecosystem).
j. Recognize the issues of statistical variability and
the need for controlled tests.
k. Recognize the cumulative nature of scientific
evidence.
l. Analyze situations and solve problems that require
combining and applying concepts from more than one area
of science.
m. Investigate a science-based societal issue by
researching the literature, analyzing data, and
communicating the findings. Examples of issues include
irradiation of food, cloning of animals by somatic cell
nuclear transfer, choice of energy sources, and land and
water use decisions in California.
n. Know that when an observation does not agree with
an accepted scientific theory, the observation is
sometimes mistaken or fraudulent (e. g., the Piltdown Man
fossil or unidentified flying objects) and that the
theory is sometimes wrong (e.g., the Ptolemaic model of
the movement of the Sun, Moon, and planets).