Recipes for Science

The book is designed to help undergraduates (at any instructional level) better understand the methods and rational structure of scientific inquiry. Recipes for Science is essential for any college student's basic scientific education.

List of Figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction: Science and Your Everyday Life; Chapter 1. What is Science?; 1.1 The Importance of Science; 1.2 Defining Science; 1.3 Recipes for Science; Chapter 2. Experiments and Studies; 2.1 Experiment: Connecting Hypotheses to Observations; 2.2 The Perfectly Controlled Experiment; 2.3 Experimental and Non-Experimental Methods; Chapter 3. Models and Modeling; 3.1 Models in Science; 3.2 Varieties of Models; 3.3 Learning from Models; Chapter 4. Patterns of Interference; 4.1 Deductive Reasoning; 4.2 Deductive Reasoning in Hypothesis-Testing; 4.3 Inductive and Abductive Reasoning; 5. Statistics and Probability; 5.1 The Roles of Statistics and Probability; 5.2 Basic Probability Theory; 5.3 Descriptive Statistics; Chapter 6. Statistical Inference; 6.1 Generalizing from Descriptive Statistics; 6.2 Using Statistics to Test Hypotheses; 6.3 A Different Approach to Statistical Inference; Chapter 7. Causal Reasoning; 7.1 What is Causation?; 7.2 Testing Causal Hypotheses; 7.3 Causal Modeling; Chapter 8. Explanations, Theories, and Values; 8.1 Understanding the World; 8.2 Theories and Theory Change; 8.3 Science, Society, and Values; Glossary; References; Index