Posted March 13, 2009
When defining science at the beginning of the experimental research methods course that I teach, I differentiate the everyday meanings of the word. Science is a community of scientists. Science is a body of knowledge gained through the scientific method, the specifics of which were reviewed, critiqued, and replicated by the scientific community. Most importantly, however, science is a method for acquiring knowledge.
Everything we know about the natural world is “science knowledge”. Since we cannot know anything about the supernatural world (if you believe there is one), everything we know know is science.
It’s time we talked about science (a term that intimidates some) in terms of knowledge (something we all value) and how it is gained.
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