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A. The Scientific World View
By the end of 8th grade, students should know that:
- When similar investigations give different results, the scientific challenge is to judge whether the differences are trivial or significant, and it often takes further studies to decide.
- Scientific knowledge is subject to modification as new information challenges prevailing theories and as a new theory leads to looking at old observations in a new way.
- Some scientific knowledge is very old and yet is still applicable today.
- Some matters cannot be examined usefully in a scientific way.
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B. Scientific Inquiry
By the end of 8th grade, students should know that:
- Scientists differ greatly in what phenomena they study and how they go about their work.
- If more than one variable changes at the same time in an experiment, the outcome of the experiment may not be clearly attributable to any one of the variables.
- What people expect to observe often affects what they actually do observe.
- New ideas in science sometimes spring from unexpected findings, and they usually lead to new investigations.
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C. The Scientific Enterprise
By the end of 8th grade, students should know that:
- Important contributions to the advancement of science, mathematics, and technology have been made by different kinds of people, in different cultures, at different times.
- Until recently, women and racial minorities, because of restrictions on their education and employment opportunities, were essentially left out of much of the formal work of the science establishment; the remarkable few who overcame those obstacles were even then likely to have their work disregarded by the science establishment.
- No matter who does science and mathematics or invents things, or when or where they do it, the knowledge and technology that result can eventually become available to everyone in the world.
- Scientists are employed by colleges and universities, business and industry, hospitals, and many government agencies.
- In research involving human subjects, the ethics of science require that potential subjects be fully informed about the risks and benefits associated with the research and of their right to refuse to participate.
- Computers have become invaluable in science because they speed up and extend people's ability to collect, store, compile, and analyze data, prepare research reports, and share data and ideas with investigators all over the world.
- Accurate record-keeping, openness, and replication are essential for maintaining an investigator's credibility with other scientists and society.
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