Science
GCISE is concerned with promoting scientific literacy and excellence in science education; therefore it is important that the word “Science” be defined clearly in the context of what is taught in our science classrooms.
Science is an objective means of learning about the natural world with the goal of describing and explaining natural phenomena. All scientific investigations are by necessity restricted to asking questions about natural phenomena – things that are measurable, observable and/or quantifiable.
Scientific explanations are constructed by formulating and testing hypotheses. A scientific Hypothesis is a tentative, testable answer to a question, and is used to make further testable predictions. A hypothesis can be supported or rejected based on observations and measurements made in the course of scientific investigations. Scientific explanations are not absolute, but can change (and have changed) in the face of new observations and measurements. This means that science is a self-correcting enterprise.
The results of scientific investigations and experiments must be reproducible by other investigators to be considered valid. One means of assuring that scientific investigations have been rigorously conducted is that they are published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, in which well-qualified scientists anonymously make a determination of whether the conclusions of the investigation are well supported by the data.
A scientific Theory means something very different from “theory” in the lay sense, and constitutes the best explanation of natural phenomena based on a preponderance of evidence. It incorporates facts, laws, strong inferences, and tested hypotheses. Theories are different than hypotheses in that they have been confirmed by many independent observations from different investigators. In science, a theory is a unifying concept, and has great explanatory power. Although hypotheses are quite often disproved, it is extremely rare for theories to be overturned or discarded.
GCISE is firmly committed to ensuring that the children of Georgia are well educated in the scientific method. Non-scientific explanations for natural phenomena, although valid from other perspectives, must not be taught in the guise of science. Often non-scientific theories rely on supernatural or paranormal phenomena or belief in things that cannot be tested. Even though certain non-scientific beliefs may be widely held, they do not conform to the criteria for valid science. Furthermore, in a society with many different belief systems, teaching the belief-based explanations of one group can directly conflict with the beliefs of other citizens, and if done in the public schools would be in violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution and Section 2, Paragraph VII of Article I of the Constitution of Georgia.
“Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature using observation, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models. Although all scientific ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement in principle, for most major ideas in science there is much experimental and observational confirmation. Those ideas are not likely to change greatly in the future. Scientists do and have changed their ideas about nature when they encounter new experimental evidence that does not match their existing explanations.”
-From National Science Standards:National Academy Press
DEFINITIONS:
FACT: In science, an assertion about the natural world that is extensively supported by empirical data.
THEORY: In science, a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses.