Chapter 2: Nature of the Scientific Enterprise

Observing the physical world, systematically investigating natural phenomena through scientific inquiry, and developing a rational worldview that is informed by shared and reasonable explanations is the goal of science. Science is complex and diverse, patient until the fruit of evidence is obvious, delivered, and accepted. The scientific enterprise is a human enterprise of making sense of the physical world through inquiry and intellectual expansion. The goal of the scientific enterprise is to construct new knowledge, solve problems, advance human understanding, and cultivate the scientific mindset wherever possible but especially among our students and educators.

I’m a scientist, specifically a geophysicist; and I’m an educator. Each semester on the first day of science methods class, after introductions and icebreakers, I ask the preservice teachers to imagine and describe what they think a scientist looks like. Their responses and colorful drawings are most typically caricatures of nerdy, goggle-wearing, men in lab coats playing with test tubes. After exploring the topic further and guiding the students toward a more appropriate and diverse description of a scientist, I then ask, “Are you a scientist?” During the early years of teaching, I was surprised that my students did not self-identify as scientists and did not understand that educators and scientists might complement a single person, or profession. Occasionally, an emphatic, “Yes, I’m a scientist. I think we all do science,” or some similar response, bursts out of these classroom discussions to stimulate enlightening deliberation and argumentation. Such responses are hopeful confirmation of the crucial work required if we are to advance toward the critical goal of a more scientifically literate nation and world (Hackling et al., 2001; Hurd, 1998; National Research Council, 2012; UNESCO, 1993).