Course summary and competence goals

Research Methods encourages students to thinking scientifically and critically. Students become familiar with the qualities and characteristics of good scientific and academic procedures and thinking as well as modes of thinking that don't work. Students consider possible ways of answering questions regarding the natural world and the universe as a whole. The course attempts to do this from the viewpoints of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology as well as other subjects such as Psychology. Students will also become familiar with equipment used in scientific research, including hardware, software, and other tools (e.g. microscopes). The course intends to facilitate the transfer to studying sciences and carrying out research in the IB. Students develop creativity, team-work and self-initiation skills, multidisciplinary skills, and importantly communication skills.   Students also learn how to conduct research and how to communicate research findings in spoken form and in writing.

General course goals

Upon completion of the course students will have:
--Familiarized themselves with the laboratory and laboratory equipment
--Learned safety procedures in practical work
--Used of Excel and other data and graphing software
--Carried out scientific and academic research in groups

--Become familiar with different types of data and different ways of collecting data

--Become familiar with the scope and use of equipment common to the natural sciences
--Learned of the possible ways scientific methods can progress
--Learned to critique these methods based on their validity and reliability
--Become familiar with the vocabulary of science and some statistical testing
--Learned of the scale of concepts addressed in the natural sciences (e.g. the size and age of the universe, the size of an electron)
--Practice carrying out scientific investigations
--Presented findings of their own scientific work
--Become more scientifically literate by the end of the course
--Become well prepared to study the following academic year

 

Course content
--Familiarization with the laboratory and laboratory equipment, especially the microscope
--Numbers in the natural sciences and the scale of the universe

--The main characteristics of scientific knowledge and its advancement

--Safety procedures in practical work

--Academic research

--The importance of ethics in research
--Use of Excel and other data and graphing software with spreadsheets and primary and secondary data
--Group work science project

 

Course Material

No book required. Calculators will be needed

 

Assessment is based upon:

--Exam results
--Classroom activity during lessons
--Group project implementation, presentation and reflection