Método Cientifico

Original:
How Non-scientists use the Scientific Method
The scientific method is used unconsciously by many people on a daily basis, for tasks such as cooking and budgeting. The same elements present in traditional scientific inquiry are present in these everyday examples. Understanding how to apply the scientific method to these seemingly non-scientific problems can be valuable in furtheringone's career and in making health-related decisions.
This chapter captures the essence of this course.  Its goal is to explain the workings of the scientific method in a familiar context. The scientific method is not just for scientists, but is for lawyers, business executives, advertising and marketing analysts, and many others. We will discuss several examples and explain how each is composed ofthe 5 scientific method elements.
Trial and Error
In the simplest terms, common uses of the scientific method involve trial and error. Consider automobile repair. Every weekend handyman, and every high school student with a passing interest in autos knows about the method of trial and error. Your car is starting to run poorly, and you take matters into your own hands in an attempt to fix it.The first step is to guess the nature of the problem (your model). Acting on your hunch, you proceed to exchange a part, adjust a setting, or replace a fluid, and then see if the car runs better. If your initial guess is incorrect and the car is not improved, you revise your guess, make another adjustment, and once again test the car. With patience and enough guesses, this process will often resultin a operable car. However, depending on one's expertise, quite a few trials and errors may be required before achieving anything remotely resembling success.
The methods scientists use to evaluate and improve models are very similar to the method of trial and error, and are the subject of this chapter. You may be reluctant to think that the bungling process of trial and error is tantamount tothe scientific method, if only because science is so often shrouded in sophistication and jargon. Yet there is no fundamental difference. It might seem that scientists start with a more detailed understanding of their problem than the weekend car mechanic, but in fact most scientific inquiries have humble and ignorant beginnings. Progress can occur just as assuredly via trial and error as intraditional science, and the scientist isn't guaranteed of success any more than is the handyman: witness the failure to develop a vaccine for AIDS. One of the themes of this book/course is that the scientific method is fundamentally the same as these simple exercises that most people perform many times in their lives.
Cooking from a recipe
Another activity familiar to all of us is cooking. Althoughthe microwave oven has reduced our dependency on preparing food for ourselves, many of us still face the need to perform rudimentary culinary skills. The preparation of most dishes begins with a recipe - a list of ingredients and instructions for mixing and cooking them. However, rare is the chef, whether budding or accomplished, that follows the recipe to the letter and does not taste and modifythe dish during the cooking process. Modifications are attempted until the preparation meets the cook's approval, whence the food is served. Any significant alterations to the recipe may be adopted as permanent modifications, to become part of the recipe itself in the future.
Although it is likely that all of us can identify with this example, it may be less obvious how this example bears on ourscientific method template. Returning to our template of 5 elements, we may dissect this example as follows:



Scientific Method Template
GOAL
To prepare a food dish
MODEL
The recipe
DATA
Tastings during preparation or when served
EVALUATION
Decisions on how it tastes
REVISION
Changes to the recipe
Let's consider each of these elements again. In the cooking example, the goal is to...