The “Scientific Method”

Most secondary school students are taught about the “Scientific Method” during their general science classes. From these early classes, students are encouraged to believe that all scientists follow an objective and almost linear process in their research. The process is generally described as something like this:

1. an unusual observation is made
2. an explanation is proposed for this observation
3. experiments are performed to test the explanation
4. after repeated experiments a theory is formed
5. experiments are performed to validate the theory
6. once validated the theory becomes a new scientific law
7. the scientific laws are used to predict new observations

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