Chapter 1: Introduction to Scientific Thinking PDF

# Chapter 1: Introduction to Scientific Thinking - Man is distinguished from other living things by his ability to think. This ability enabled him to build various civilizations and helped him meet his needs based on the surrounding environment. - This ability helped him to change his life accord...

# Chapter 1: Introduction to Scientific Thinking - Man is distinguished from other living things by his ability to think. This ability enabled him to build various civilizations and helped him meet his needs based on the surrounding environment. - This ability helped him to change his life according to exigent conditions. Thinking is an important human feature and is necessary to every citizen in our modern world. ## Definition of Science: - It is an intellectual activity during which occur observation, description, experimentation, and explanation of natural phenomena. ## Types of Thinking: - There are divisions of types of thinking as follows: 1. Unscientific Thinking - Superstitious Thinking - Fictional - Thinking with other minds - Thinking with trial and error - Thinking depending on individual experience 2. Scientific Thinking - Reflective Thinking - Reasoning Thinking - Rational Thinking - Critical Thinking - Metaphysic Thinking - Mathematical Thinking - Creative Thinking - Visual Thinking Network - Systemic Thinking - Lateral Thinking ## Scientific Thinking: - We will explain some scientific thinking such as: - Mathematical Thinking - Creative Thinking - Some ways and models to develop thinking and the most important of the person practicing scientific thinking affect and intellectual features. ## Definition of Scientific Thinking - It is an unlimited or a simple intellectual activity that expresses about intellectual process, but it is a complicated intellectual activity in its form and has specific characteristics and features. - Some scientists define it as a mental activity used by a person when they face a certain problem. - This person behaves positively using a specific approach depending on a group of successive steps to solve this problem. -This means that scientific thinking is the mental activity process depending on mind and proof to understand and explain phenomena to solve problems. This process depends on observation, induction, and inference. ## Characteristics of Scientific Thinking - Scientific thinking has some characteristics that distinguish it from other types of thinking. Scientific thinking is: 1. A Human Process - This kind of thinking is human and affects human curiosity and tends to search for material reasons for universal phenomena in persuasive ways. 2. An Objective Process - Scientific thinking aims to solve problems that face man and it tends to study and understand the different phenomena to know its theories and laws. 3. An Organized Process - This thinking is an organized activity that occurs according to specific steps where every step completes the other irrespective of the matter thinking. 4. An Integrated Process - This thinking takes the situation as a whole to its elements and aspects and studies all possibilities and conditions that may affect the situation. This thinking is characterized by accuracy and knowledge comprehension. 5. A Flexible Process - This means that this thinking is not limited to one way of thinking because its results can be revised and modified. 6. A Creative Process - This happens without a serial of steps or hierarchies. It has a creative feature which plays an important role in this process. ## Aims of Scientific Thinking - Description: - This means we record what we observe as facts, things, and phenomena and relations among each other. - Description depends on mainly on sensory realization, notice, and observation and experimentation, more than depends on the highly thinking process as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. - Interpretation: - We try to know the reasons for accidents and phenomena. So, interpretation depends on highly thinking processes as analysis and synthesis and evaluation. - Prediction: - This is to *expect* what will happen in the future based on the last information we reached, which is called scientific theories. - Control: - This means knowing the conditions and circumstances of a certain phenomenon. Preventing phenomena from being occurred by preventing its conditions may mean controlling natural forces to serve man. - Getting a New Knowledge - Applying Scientific Laws: - Laws and theories to get useful tools and equipment. ## Basic Scientific Thinking Processes - These processes are intellectual ones performed by man to discover the universe so we can do experiments and explain data as well as formulate theories and laws objectively. - This means the basic processes of scientific thinking are methods and techniques that one uses to solve his scientific problem and access to information. - These processes are summarized as follows: 1. Observation 2. Experimenting 3. Classification 4. Measuring 5. Analysis - Physical Analysis: decomposing the complex to its simple elements. For example: the chemist analyzes water into oxygen and hydrogen. - Intellectual Analysis: used in math; a mathematician analyzes quantity and analyzes the quantity. 6. Synthesis: which is the opposite of analysis and moves from simple to complex or from reasons to results. - Synthesis may be physical or intellectual. For example, the chemistry scientist may recompose water by exposing oxygen and hydrogen to five. 7. Interpreting Data: This is where we reach and get some data that explain a certain problem. 8. Formulating Hypothesis 9. Using Numbers 10. Using Space and Time Relations: - This is a process which develops skills of description of space relations and how they change with time. For example, defining the velocity of something moving and making a chart of tridimensional figures. 11. Inference: Formulating some results from given information and data 12. Prediction: This is expecting what will happen in the future in light of the previous information that we perceived and expressed as scientific theories. ## 1. Observation - Individuals use all their senses and tools to check things or incidents or phenomena and records them accurately. - Skills involved in observing: 1. Recognizing the features of phenomena or things by using senses. 2. Formulating notices in a quantitively way. 3. Differentiating between observing and inference. 4. Knowing the difference among similar things. ## 2. Experimenting - This means testing a certain phenomenon or a specific result or hypothesis accurately. ## 3. Scientific Hypothesis: - It is the suggested solutions to a specific problem with examination of testing other alternatives. - Conditions to form a scientific hypothesis: 1. It should be based on observations and experiments. 2. It should be accurate and clear. 3. It should not be inconsistent with any natural law. 4. It should be able to explain all the phenomena to whom it was supposed. 5. These hypothesis should be limited in number. ## 4. Classification - This is a process where we classify things or incidents into groups based on specific features. ## 5. Measuring - A process where we use measuring tools to estimate certain characteristics in a quantitative way, such as area, volume, temperature, and speed. ## 6. Synthesis: - This is the opposite of analysis and it is moving from simple to complex or from reasons to results. ## 7. Interpreting Data: - This is where we reach and get data that explain a certain problem. ## 8. Using Numbers: - It's a process where we use mathematical equations to solve scientific problems.