Investigating Science: should I choose it?

Cause and Effect – Observing

Cause and Effect – Inferences and Generalisations

Scientific Models

Theories and Laws

Module 5: Scientific Investigations

Module 5 asks why investigations begin and how they are judged. You study what prompted Marshall and Warren (peptic ulcers), Von Helmont (plant growth) and Spencer (microwaves) to investigate, the hypotheses they tested and where they departed from the tidy linear model of scientific method — Marshall famously experimented on himself. You evaluate the objectives, data and methodology of Eratosthenes, Doppler, Priestley and Marshall and Warren, and justify choosing experimental testing, fieldwork, surveys, information sources or modelling. Then you design your own investigation: variables and controls, sample size and selection, materials, ethics, time frame, and whether to work alone or collaboratively. The module ends with validity, reliability and the structure of a peer-reviewed report.

Module 6: Technologies

Module 6 examines the two-way relationship between science and technology. Practically, you design investigations that measure both variables quantitatively — temperature and reaction rate, temperature and gas volume, speed and distance, pressure and gas volume — and evaluate the measuring devices: resolution, random and systematic error, calibration, and the accuracy of analogue against digital instruments. You assess safety with safety data sheets and Work Health and Safety guidelines. Conceptually, you trace the continuous cycle: X-ray diffraction revealing DNA's structure, radiation detectors and atomic theory, the Large Hadron Collider and the Higgs boson, and geological simulations; and in the other direction optics laws leading to microscopes and telescopes, radioactivity to radiotherapy and nuclear weapons, DNA to genetic modification, and Newton's laws to earthquake-resistant buildings. The module also covers scientists' growing respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples' knowledge of plants and ethical bioharvesting.

Module 7: Fact or Fallacy?

Module 7 is about separating evidence from persuasion. You plan and run an investigation to test a claim, judging validity, reliability and accuracy and the effect of sample size and selection, and you compare emotive advertising with evidence-based claims on food packaging and products. You justify placebos, double-blind trials and control groups, and evaluate how societal and economic pressures can shape data on climate, health remedies and statistics. You analyse correlation mistaken for causation (the Hawthorne effect, the 1991 hormone replacement therapy study, the Mozart Effect), media reporting of a contemporary debate, the words theory, hypothesis, belief and law, conflicts of interest (tobacco, fossil fuels, asbestos, commercial research), the halo effect, and pseudosciences such as astrology, numerology and iridology. Finally you ask whether peer review can find the truth: fraud, publish or perish, cold fusion, hoax papers and fake journals.

Module 8: Science and Society

Module 8 looks at science in its social, ethical, economic and political setting. Case studies of nuclear meltdowns, the smallpox vaccine, the development of flight and the damming of rivers show how events change the public image of science. You investigate why research is regulated — embryo and sex-cell modification, biotechnological weapons, drug testing, the nuclear industry and Indigenous cultural and intellectual property — and evaluate international codes of conduct on cloning, stem cells, surrogacy, GM foods and organ transplantation. You weigh space exploration against spending on poverty and food supply, evaluate research that aided economic development (nuclear power, antimicrobials, GM foods, petroleum products, robotics and drones) and world health (surgical devices and procedures, water treatment, vaccination), and analyse how governments, corporations, research budgets, benefit-sharing and cultural perspectives steer research.