Week 1 – HOW LIFE WORKS:

Biology – Science of How Life Works; study of life; attempt to understand processes of life.

How life works - many levels. Three levels:

-Molecular mechanisms within the cell

-Integrated actions of many cells within an organ or body

-Interactions among different organisms in nature

Life Processes –

Microscopic and macroscopic levels:
All methods of scientific study use the Scientific Method

Scientific Method –
Systematic approach to finding out how things work. (i.e., structured and disciplined way to study things)
Deliberate way of asking questions about things we don’t yet understand.

Start with observation – Sensing the world around us with our 5 senses or with augmented abilities such as scientific instruments; – seeing a particular event or occurrence;

Scientists then make proposed, tentative explanations < - - i.e., hypothesis (a predictive guess) and plan out detailed experiments or detailed observations to see if the tentative explanation is correct (i.e., true).

Test that tentative explanation

[pic]
Make some observations of the image above.

Ideas:
-What motivates this behavior?
-Is the bird feeding?
-Does the bird choose this flower because of its color?
-Does the flower benefit from the bird’s behavior?

Observations made and the questions they raise allow us to propose tentative explanations, or hypotheses.

By making these observations, you can propose tentative explanations (hypotheses).

A good hypothesis makes predictions about observations not yet made or experiments not yet run, i.e., Testable Predictions.

Once a hypothesis has been supported by experiments and observations, it can become a theory.

Note that, in general conversation, the term theory is often synonymous with