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A federal court, in the case Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, eventually overturned the curriculum policy of the Dover Area School Board based upon the conclusion that intelligent design is not science. In order to understand how the judge came to this decision, we need to fully understand the nature of science.
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Interactive
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Take a look at this interactive activity that describes how the work of two renowned scientists illustrates the scientific process.
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Video
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Now watch these excerpts from interviews with educators about the nature of science and how it is different from other ways of knowing about the natural world.
Finally, listen to these interviews with Barbara Forrest, a philosophy professor and author who studies the intelligent design movement, and Kevin Padian, a paleontologist, explaining what the word "theory" means in science. Forrest and Padian both testified in the trial.
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Reading
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Read the following article from the University of California Museum of Paleontology Web site about what the nature of science is.
Understanding Evolution: Nature of Science
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Notebook
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Answer the following questions in your notebook:
- Why do scientists always change their minds?
- In science, how do we know what to believe?
- Why is it important to rely on science to explain the natural world, and to leave supernatural explanations out of science?
- Can science prove something to be an absolute truth?
- What questions were raised in this reading? What information, if any, was new for you? Was there anything that was confusing or that you'd like clarified?
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