Examples of Scientific Method in Daily Life

The scientific method is a methodological system designed to standardize the ways of obtaining scientific knowledge, guarantee the objectivity, verifiability and demonstrability of a fact or process. The scientific method encompasses a set of possible research models, each with its specific rules, such as definitional, classificatory, statistical, empirical-analytical, hypothetical-deductive methods, among others.

The development of the scientific method was the result of a long philosophical process that crystallized in the Renaissance thanks to the paradigm of Humanism, which positioned human reason in the central place previously occupied by faith Christian. Today, however, it constitutes the main method of obtaining knowledge available to humanity, as the science It has played an increasingly leading role in our way of life.

In general, any use of the scientific method encompasses the following steps or stages:

Examples of the scientific method in everyday life

It is possible to apply the scientific method in different instances of everyday life, although not our daily actions are always undertaken with the rigor and formality proposed by this method. Even so, the following may be examples of the application of the scientific method in everyday life:

1. Example 1. Miguel makes a barbecue for his friends and realizes that the meat is raw. Determined to find out why, she first checks the meat to see which parts were cooked more and which parts were cooked less (observation), and it seems to her that the portions of the meat that was on the sides of the grill are the ones that were left raw, so the reason for their poor cooking must have to do with the distribution of fire in the grill (hypothesis). The next day he buys the same cut of meat and repeats the cooking, but this time he tries to spread more hot coals towards a side, leaving the other as he always does, to see if the side that receives more embers this time is well cooked (experimentation). The result is positive: the portion of meat that received more embers was better cooked, and the portion that did not receive special treatment remains raw again. So Miguel understands that, in this barbecue, the embers must be more evenly distributed on the sides and, therefore, the solution is to use more embers (theory).
2. Example 2. Maria's cell phone continually loses connection to WiFi when she is at her house. Since she has a very good internet service, she decides to find out what is going on, and assumes that some other device is interfering (hypothesis). She disconnects, therefore, all the other devices to see if the phenomenon is repeated (observation), with the idea of ​​going little by little, she connects them again to see if any interfere (experimentation). The phone loses the signal anyway. Determined to check if it is the phone or the WiFi signal, she visits a relative to see if her signal is broken at her house. she also loses (observation) and realizes that it happens again, even though this relative has an internet service different. She concludes, then, that the problem has to do with the cell phone and not with the internet service (theory).

References:

• "scientific method"in Wikipedia.
• "scientific method" Ministry of Education of Spain.
• “Scientific Method”in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• “Scientific Method”in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Follow with: