Point of View: What Makes it Science? A Modern Look | NSTA

Point of View: What Makes it Science? A Modern Look

Journal of College Science Teaching -- Summer 2006

Scientific inquiry differs from other human inquiry in the kind of evidence scientists pay attention to. Scientific evidence was born, historically of human curiosity and its search for practical explanations of observed phenomena on which everyone can agree. If everyone is to agree on an answer, everyone must first agree on the evidence supporting it. Scientific evidence must, therefore, be replicable by others and, thus, cannot be a personal choice of the inquirer. Scientific kinds of evidence are what make science's conclusions objective, not subjective.

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