Key Concepts in Basic Science

Basic scientific concepts provide insight into how everything is connected.
••• Goodshoot/Goodshoot/Getty Images

The most important and basic scientific concepts help you with your pursuit of knowledge. The National Science Foundation shares that having an understanding of these concepts helps you have a better understanding of science-related material that you hear, read or discuss, as well as the elements of scientific inquiry. By knowing core scientific concepts, you can develop a better and more accurate perception of how the world works.

Scientific Process

Scientists learn and gain knowledge with observations and experiments. The scientific process begins with posing a question, developing a hypothesis and making educated predictions. Experiments, data evaluation, making adjustments and confirming results follow. Scientific results must be observable, measurable and repeatable. Common elements of the scientific process include identifying, measuring and reporting cause and effect. The scientific process is important because it eliminates personal biases and can change what others decide to believe, according to the Science Integration Institute website.

Organization and Systems

Organizing objects and phenomena into a logical order helps individuals understand a subject’s complexity or place in a list of hierarchies. For example, plants and animals are organized by kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species. Scientists also organize various components into systems. A solar system, for instance, contains a sun, planets, moons, dwarf planets and comets.

Variation, Change and Diversity

Variation observed in elements helps individuals understand the distinctive properties found in objects. By understanding these differences or how elements change, individuals can better predict the outcome of modifications. The Department of Education offers the example of exposing water to heat or freezing temperatures, which can cause it to freeze and expand, evaporate or boil. Understanding diversity in the natural world gives better insight into how ecosystems work and depend on different elements to carry out their intended functions. For example, water in an ecosystem provides a natural habitat for aquatic animals, acts as a source of hydration for others and provides nutrients to plants. Warm water in springs can serve as a warm refuge for animals that live in cold places, like the Japanese macaques. In its frozen form, water is a habitat for animals like polar bears or those that use the snow as camouflage from predators, like willow ptarmigans.

Scale

The use of scale quantifies measurable items. Each type of scale has its own respective units of measurement. Thermometers, for example, measure temperatures using the Fahrenheit, Celsius or Kelvin scales. Rulers indicate the size of an object using the metric scale or U.S. customary units, like inches. Scientists use relative scale to help others understand a concept related to size and maintain the proportions in question. An example of relative scale is an astronomer using a large beach ball to represent the sun and several balls of various sizes for planets. By placing the smaller balls around the beach ball, the scientist demonstrates the size of the planets in relation to the sun and indicates their positions in the solar system.

Related Articles

Science Concepts for Kids
How to Calculate Absolute Change
How to Compute a Population Mean
How to Figure out Scale Intervals on a Graph
Difference Between Global Warming & the Greenhouse...
The Four Types of Temperature Scales
How to Find a Z Score
How to Calibrate a Cen-Tech Digital Pocket Scale
How to Calculate Architectural Scales
How to Teach Bar Graphs to Third-Graders
Biome Activities for Middle School
How to Write Results for a Science Fair Project
Animal Habitat Lessons for Kindergarten
How to Make a Biome Project Out of a Shoebox
How to Calculate a Moving Range
How do I Create Graph Results for Questionnaires?
How to Use Counters in Math
Science Project Ideas & the Scientific Method

Dont Go!

We Have More Great Sciencing Articles!