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Scientific Method

Decent Essays

Science is part of everyone’s everyday life, and the scientific method is used in a variety of day to day tasks, whether we are consciously aware of it or not. The scientific method is a process by which problems are approached in order to solve that problem by making observations and performing experiments. This paper will look at two problems that could be encountered in daily life, and using the scientific method to solve the problem.
Daily Use of the Scientific Method
The Scientific Method
Science is part of daily life, from the alarm clock that wakes a person up in the morning to the vehicle that is used to transport them throughout their day. Even down to the body a person lives in, there is science that can be applied to a person’s …show more content…

Observation is an important tool, and one that is used on a daily basis by all people. Observation in the scientific method is used to first identify an issue, in the next step patterns and regularities are identified. The strength of recognizing patterns and regularities is that once recognized and identified a pattern or regularity can often be manipulated in order to change the results. Prior to manipulating the pattern that a person has recognized they should follow the third step of the scientific method and perform research. Research may show that experiments have been tried in the set of circumstances a person is observing, and may render some options as having previously failed or previously rendering a particular set of results. The last steps are creating a theory, predicting the results, and testing that theory. There is an optional fifth step of reporting the results that is used by professional scientists and students, but often is not necessary in daily life. (Trefil & Hazen, …show more content…

Mom has heard that there is a flu going around at daycare, and is also aware that her husband took the child out the night before for fast food that the child typically is not allowed to have as a special treat. Mom goes to the internet and looks up symptoms of the flu as well as the effects of a change in diet. She goes to WebMD and looks up symptoms of the flu, and asks her child questions based on what she finds out about the flu. The child says he has muscle aches, is tired has already reported a headache, and the mother checks his temperature, he is running a mildly elevated temperature which has risen a full degree when checked an hour later. The mother could not find any credible information about the change in her son’s diet for a single meal to test that theory. Because of the elevated temperature she gives her son a children’s fever reducer, which also helps to relieve her child’s headache. She puts the child back to bed and checks on him every few hours, his temperature is still elevated but lower than it was initially she estimates by touch, in the morning she confirms by taking the child’s temperature again, it is closer to the level it had been the night before causing her to provide another dose of fever reducer and call the doctor’s office, the doctor’s office confirms that the symptoms are likely the flu, and tell her to keep her son home until he has been

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