Jan 8 lecture notes Nature of Science

Bio 117 notes Fri, Jan 8

Nature of Science

Hypothesis - scientific claim which is falsifiable (could be proven wrong – but isn’t necessarily wrong to start with)

Experiments don’t always support hypothesis

Empirical evidence– observations made of outside world

Null hypothesis (H0) –hypothesis that there is NO difference/relationship/pattern between one event and another / data
Like any hypothesis it’s a scientific claim that could be proven wrong
EX College students today are equally as smart as students from 1990.

Alternative hypothesis (HA) – there IS a difference/relationship/pattern between data
EX College students in 2010 are smarter than college students in 1990.
Could prove this false by looking at average ACT scores. If the average ACT score in 1990 is higher, this statement is false. We must assume the test in both years is equally as difficult.

Theory – hypothesis which has been tested by many experiments, but none of the experiments prove the theory false

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