Download Generating Scientific Questions

Generating Scientific Questions
AP Environmental Science
Name __________________________ Per. _____
Procedures
1. Read the following article.
2. Re-read the article and highlight 25% of the information as it relates to generating good scientific
questions.
Article
Imagine the following scenario. An oak tree takes up nutrients from the soil. A gypsy moth
caterpillar then eats the oak leaves and the caterpillar’s droppings return to the layer of dead leaves, twigs,
and other organic matter on top of the soil. Microorganisms next break down the droppings and they again
become part of the soil.
Now imagine yourself as an ecologist (a scientist who studies ecology). What sorts of questions
might an ecologist ask about the oak tree and caterpillar in the forest? Ecologists might examine such
questions as: Why are caterpillars plentiful in some years and rare in others? Do bird populations increase
when there are more caterpillars for them eat? What happens to trees and to the entire forest when
caterpillars eat the trees’ leaves? How do plants growing along the ground respond when trees lose their
leaves or die and more sunlight reaches the ground?
Asking questions such as these is an essential part of conducting science. Scientists usually ask many
more questions than they can answer, and only some of the questions they ask can feasibly be developed
into a research project. So how do scientists narrow down their questions to determine which ones should
become the focus of research? Through reading the work of other scientists, making careful observations,
conducting small preliminary experiments, and talking to their peers about their ideas, scientists narrow
down their questions to the few that they could reasonably hope to answer. Once ecologists have narrowed
down their questions, how might they go about answering them?
Answering questions about ecosystems is neither quick nor easy for several reasons. First,
ecosystems consist of biological (living) things interacting with physical (non-living) things, and these
interactions can be complex. Second, ecosystems vary in size — from something as small as a classroom
terrarium to something as large as an entire river valley. Answering ecological questions is especially
challenging because many ecosystem processes happen slowly or occur only once in a great while. It can
take tens or even hundreds of years for a fallen tree to decay and for the nutrients in that tree to cycle back
to the soil. It may take hundreds or even thousands of years for a lake to fill with soil and become a grassy
meadow. A forest or city park may experience only small changes for hundreds of years — a tree dying and
new plants slowly filling the space left by the dead tree. But, in the space of one afternoon, a tornado may
rip through the forest or park, topple all the trees, and turn it into what looks like a wasteland. Which of
these processes might we fail to notice if we conduct only short term, two-three year, studies?
In addition to happening over long and unpredictable time scales, ecological processes occur across
large areas. Salmon swim from the ocean hundreds of miles inland. When they die and decompose, they
have cycled nutrients from smaller fish they consumed in the ocean to the water of small streams. Similarly,
acid rain produced in the Midwest may affect plants and animals thousands of miles away in the
northeastern states. When studying processes that occur over long time periods and over large areas, it is
difficult to find all the answers in laboratory studies. Thus, ecologists often conduct research outside in the
ecosystems they are studying.
One approach to answering ecological questions is conducting long-term research in real
ecosystems. Scientists use a variety of methods, including monitoring changes in plant and animal
populations or in atmospheric conditions. For example, bird watchers may monitor the date of first arrival
of spring migrant birds and meteorologists record the peak and low temperatures over many years. Field
experiments are another kind of long-term research. As opposed to monitoring, where scientists observe
changes occurring naturally, in field experiments scientists actually change something in nature and then
compare the area they have altered to an area that is left intact. For example, you may have heard about
experiments where scientists have added iron to the ocean, and are comparing populations of microscopic
plants in areas where the ocean has been fertilized with iron to areas where nothing is added. The purpose
of this experiment is to determine whether we might be able to decrease the amounts of CO2 in the
atmosphere by increasing the populations of ocean plants that absorb CO2.
Discussion Questions – Use the article above and Chapter 2 of your text to answer the following.
1. Define each of the following:
Science data control Independent variable dependent variable 2. Describe how scientific questions differ from other questions that might arise in your daily life.
3. How valid are the results of science?
4. Distinguish between frontier science and consensus science.
5. Distinguish between good and bad scientific questions. Provide examples of each.
6. Throughout this course you will be generating scientific questions. List the steps to take to insure you
have developed a good scientific question.