Benchmark
1A
The Nature of Science: The Scientific World View
Grades 6-8, page 7
Some scientific knowledge is very old and yet is still applicable today.
NSES Content Standard G
History and Nature of Science: Nature of science
Grades 5-8, page 171
Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature using observation,
experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models. Although all scientific
ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement in principle,
for most major ideas in science, there is much experimental and observational
confirmation. Those ideas are not likely to change greatly in the future.
Scientists do and have changed their ideas about nature when they encounter
new experimental evidence that does not match their existing explanations.
NSES Content Standard G
History and Nature of Science: Nature of scientific knowledge
Grades 9-12, page 201
Because all scientific ideas depend on experimental and observational
confirmation, all scientific knowledge is, in principle, subject to change
as new evidence becomes available. The core ideas of science such as the
conservation of energy or the laws of motion have been subjected to a wide
variety of confirmations and are therefore unlikely to change in the areas
in which they have been tested. In areas where data or understanding are
incomplete, such as the details of human evolution or questions surrounding
global warming, new data may well lead to changes in current ideas or resolve
current conflicts. In situations where information is still fragmentary,
it is normal for scientific ideas to be incomplete, but this is also where
the opportunity for making advances may be greatest.
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