Science: stone house or a pile of rocks

We have talked a great deal about what science is and isnt, and the ideas and notions behind the nature of science are really interesting (it's the discipline and follow-through that scares me). I do appreciate the proposition that science isn't "truth," and isn't equiped to seek truth.

Science is an exploration of our world and what makes it "work." It's built with facts, and more facts. But: facts alone are not enough -you need to forumlate something with them. As the famous scientist and philosopher Henri Poincare' wrote, 'an accumulation of facts is no more science than a heap of stones is a house.'

In other words we need to know what to do with all the facts assembled in order to make something useful of them. But one scientist's facts can be another's conundrum: one scientist see's significance in a pile of facts, and another totally misses it. As teachers of science we should embrace the examination of facts, to test, justify and quantify facts as part of our teaching.

If science were a car it would run on radial facts; it would be gassed up with suppositions in the tank, and a constant spark of ideas for the battery. But you may drive the car around and not get anywhere . . . maybe you don't know the several routes to your destination . . . suddenly your headlights flicker, the wipers stop working and the radio starts playing easy-listening oldies. You end up crashing the car! That's what science can be, and whay observation, recording and ideas are needed.

I think most people tend towards simplistic notions about science: done in a lab, in lab coats with test tubes and Frankenstein sparks and electrical arc machines. That common perception that there is a single scientific, step-by-step method to follow, that ends up with the "answer." However the tentativeness of science makes one "answer" impossible.

And anyway, one answer in science just leads to another question, and then another and another, as in the Socratic Method. The Soctatic Method is an important teaching strategy that will aide us in our classroom management (by keeping students engaged) and help as an important assessment tool. Science is a dynamic study that requires a dynamic approach.