Science is a Process

Science is a process for making meaning and deriving understanding about our world and ourselves. It is fundamentally a human endeavor, and thus is fallible in all of the ways humans are fallible. Also like humans, science is a multifaceted, creative, collaborative, and more… We are excited to share these dimensions of science with you in visible and accessible ways! We are also working hard to bring you the tools to do your own high quality science in your very own home—stay tuned!

Ways of Knowing

If you learned that a controlled experiment or null hypothesis was essential for good science, I’m here to burst your bubble — they’re not. In fact, there are many ways of knowing and deriving understanding in science. We are exploring a framework of six styles of scientific reasoning, based off of the work of Per Kind and Jonathan Osborne (journal link or download here). While sometimes overlapping, these highlight distinct approaches to making meaning about our world and ourselves.

Look for each of these highlighted throughout our Data for the People offerings and ask yourself

What would a scientific approach to this question look like through a different style of reasoning?