Unit 1: Science and scientific research

1. Working in science

1.1. The scientific method

1.2. Reasoning in science

1.3. Research teams

Activities:

1. Look for information about the “the Waring Blender experiment” (1952 : authors,
experiment outline, conclusion.

2. Comment the René Descartes´ sentence: “To investigate the truth it is necessary to doubt,
as far as possible, all things”.

3. Why might it be convenient to change the order of the steps of the scientific method?

4. Why observing an event only once does not allow to verify a hypothesis?

5. Explain the importance of the invention of the printing press to the last stage of the
scientific method

6. Look for information and explains why the theory of the big bang or evolution are called
theories and the law of universal gravitation or the laws of inheritance are called laws.

7. Anton van Leeuwenhoek was a cloth merchant who made the first microscope in the 17th
century and observed the first cells. Do you think he would have done the same if he had been
a miner?

8. Classify as inductive or deductive the following reasoning:

a) Since no bear is known to have hatched from an egg, the species is not oviparous.

b) Given that all masses interact gravitationally, to calculate the trajectory of a spacecraft the
position of the planets must be taken into account.