SM123 Practical 1: Weather station

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- practical science can occur anywhere, not just in a lab 
- there is a key distinction between seeing and observing - observing is more detailed than seeing
- making an observation about something is frequently the first important step in the development of a new theory 
- many famous observations were made by chance
- observational skills often allow scientists to detect something unusual or rare which becomes the starting point of a systematic investigation of why and how something occurs 
- scientists then often make some more detailed observations to see if something is worth studying further

- to attempt to answer a scientific question, a hypothesis is needed (a guess about what is happening, which is informed by what is currently known about the phenomenon being investigated) 
- a hypothesis must always be falsifiable - there must always be a way to prove it wrong
- it must be testable - there must be a way to evaluate the relationship proposed in the hypothesis outside of the mind of the scientist who came up with it 
- you must be able to control many of the factors (or variables) that could potentially have an effect on the experiment

- observations must be collected according to certain standards…

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