Writing Prompts

Directions: Type your responses to the items below.

1		Give an example of your own application of the scientific method or "organized common sense" in trying to determine the explanation for a "problem" and how to fix it. You can base your example on the one in the selection about the desk lamp, but create your own example.
2		What are some advantages that using the scientific method might provide for scientists?
3		Which of the four steps in the scientific method do you think might be most challenging for a scientist? Explain why you think that step might be the hardest.

To the Web

Consult one or more of the following websites that pertain to the topic of the reading selection. Then answer the questions based on information obtained from the websites.

http://www.utexas.edu/courses/bio301d/Topics/Nonscientists/Text.html

4		The author of this website says that "common uses of the scientific method involve trial and error," but does the author of this website consider trial and error to be the samething as the scientific method? Explain your answer and tell where on the website you located the information.
5		At the end of the website homepage is a section entitled "When It's Not Science." In it, the author identifies five areas in which the scientific method cannot be applied fully, although people sometimes believe that these areas are "scientific." Read what the author has to say about each of the five areas: religion, government agencies, the criminal justice system, technology, and astrology. Then rank the five areas from least scientific to more scientific. Explain why you ranked them the way that you did.

http://www.howe.k12.ok.us/~jimaskew/hsimeth.htm

This website is just for fun, yet it illustrates the application of the scientific method to solve routine problems, such as finding a date for Friday night. Read through the steps. When you reach step 5 ("Draw conclusions"), assume that you drew conclusion 2: Your hypothesis was incorrect, and the experiment failed. Under the section entitled "Do more research," choose one of the first four items and give an example of one of the following:

6		a problem with the original hypothesis ("I need a date for Friday night.") a poor selection of a person as a potential date (explain on what basis or in what way might the selection have been a poor one) a way in which the experiment was flawed If you prefer, you can give another hypothesis based on the unsuccessful outcome of the first one.