Netherlands VWO 6 (eindexamenjaar) Nature, Life and Technology

1. Foundations of science and technology

Fundamental theories · Research methods and techniques

• Nature of Science: How Scientific Knowledge Is Built and Changed – Science is a way of knowing that rests on evidence anyone can check. Scientists observe, infer, test ideas that could be proved wrong, and let other experts check their work. Laws describe what happens; theories explain why. Scientific knowledge is reliable but always open to change, and sometimes a whole way of seeing (a paradigm) is replaced.
• The Scientific Method – The scientific method is the careful way scientists find out how the world works. Observe something, ask a testable question, make a hypothesis (a clear, testable guess), test it with a fair experiment (change one variable, measure one, keep the rest the same), repeat and record data, analyse it, draw a conclusion and share it so others can check. Results that fail the test are useful too: they send you back to a new hypothesis.