Subtest II: Science Study Guide for the CSET Multiple Subjects Test

Use of Scientific Tools

Scientists use complex and precise tools to carry out their research. In the field, scientists use highly precise measuring instruments to collect data about how a system or process works. To record and analyze the data, scientists often use powerful software and computers. Depending on the type of research, scientists can use dozens of different tools during their projects.

The Metric System

The metric system is a system of units in which the multiples and divisions of each measuring unit are related to each other by multiples of 10. The metric system is used in science because of the ease of working with the units. The basic units include the meter, gram, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, and candela for length, mass, time, electric current, temperature, amount of substance, and luminous intensity, respectively.

Recording by Sequence and Time

There are some times in which scientific results should be interpreted in context and relative to other findings. For example, the relative dating of rocks allows researchers to determine the order in which the geological events in the history of Earth have happened, but that doesn’t allow them to determine the real age.

Communicating Investigative Steps

There may be several steps from the formulation of the scientific question to the solution. For example, if the researcher wants to know if there is a relationship between the number of births and the GDP of a country, the research should start with determining the number of births, then determining the GDP, and then finding if there is a relationship. Each step of this process should be communicated to the scientific community to allow for suggestions or to find potential flaws in the way the research is carried out. The ways to communicate are varied and can range from publishing information (e.g., data, charts, maps, tables, models) online to giving a presentation at a scientific conference.

Using Information Sources

Information sources are all the types of documents that contain useful data to satisfy a demand for information or knowledge. Knowing, distinguishing, and selecting appropriate information sources is part of the research process.

Using Multiple Sources and Types

There are two main types of sources: primary and secondary. Primary sources contain new and original information, which is the result of an intellectual work. Primary sources can be books, journals, magazines, newspapers, official documents from public institutions, technical reports, patents, or technical standards. Secondary sources contain organized information, which is the product of the analysis, extraction, or reorganization of primary sources. Secondary sources are encyclopedias, anthologies, directories, books, or review articles that interpret other works and research. Both types of sources are important and necessary when conducting research. The researcher should start by using secondary sources that will lead them to primary sources.

Analyze and Summarize

After the researcher finds an information source, that source must be analyzed, summarized, and added to the research. The researcher should adapt the main ideas of the original text in an abbreviated way. The summary is not an informative reduction of the original text, but a new text that tries to adapt to the characteristics of the new research. When writing a summary, it is necessary to know the purpose, audience, and medium in which the summary is going to be presented. There are three steps when writing a summary: analyzing the context of the original text, understanding and selecting the relevant data from the original text, and writing the summary according to the goals of the new research.

Citing Evidence

Referencing sources is a vital step in the research process. There are different standardized formats of citing previous works in a text, but the most important styles are the following: APA (American Psychological Association), used in social sciences; MLA (Modern Language Association), used in literature, arts, and humanities; Vancouver, used in biomedicine; CSE (Council of Science Editors), used in physical sciences; and CMOS (the Chicago Manual of Style), used in natural and social sciences.

Analyzing Information

The process of analyzing information consists of obtaining data that will be useful for research. When analyzing sources, these are some of the important points that the researcher should keep in mind:

Structure—Regardless of the style of the writer, informational texts usually follow the same structure. They will start with an introduction, located at the beginning of the text, which serves to ask questions, anticipate comments, organize the ideas, and synthesize the field of study. The second element of a text is the body, which contains the objectives, methods, bibliographic revision, results, analysis of the results, and implications of the results. The body can use several paragraphs to cover the main idea, as well as numerous secondary related ideas. The last element of an informational text is the conclusion, which has a summary of the text, a recap of the results, and recommendations for future research.

Meaning—Scientific informational texts may have domain-specific phrases and words, key terms, and symbols that the researcher may not be familiar with. To find their meaning, the researcher must build a glossary of terms by using a dictionary or other informational texts, asking other researchers, or looking in manuals, books, or guides about the subject.

Author’s purpose—The author’s purpose is the reason they are writing about the subject. To find the author’s purpose, the researcher must ask questions related to the text, such as “What does the author want to say in this text?”, “What does the author want to make me think or feel?”, “What does the author want me to do after finishing reading the text?”, or “Does the author want to influence my behavior or that of others?”

Evaluating Results

One of the fundamental activities in research is the evaluation of the results. It is a process that tries to determine in the most systematic possible way the pertinence, reliability, effectiveness, and impact of the data that was obtained.

Verifying—The verification and reproducibility of a result is a necessary step when testing results. It involves checking the results, usually by repeating the methods used to obtain the results, and using statistical tools to determine if the results are the same.

Challenging—After the results are verified, it is time to challenge them. The researcher should compare their conclusions with the ones obtained by other researchers and be able to explain why they are different or similar to other sources of information.

Synthesizing—When the results are verified and challenged, the researcher should synthesize the information from a wide range of sources (e.g., texts, experiments, simulations) into a document that summarizes, analyzes, and criticizes the data and that allows for a coherent understanding of the subject of study.

Integrating the Sciences into the World

Science should not be isolated from the world. It has the potential to offer solutions to the challenges of life and to help solve the great mysteries of humankind. In other words, it is one of the most important ways of accessing knowledge that can ultimately benefit society.

Interdependence of Disciplines

There is an intricate relationship between science, technology, and engineering. Science is the acquisition of knowledge, technology is the application of science, and engineering is the use of technology to solve problems. But there is more to that. Engineers use the knowledge from science to solve practical problems, and engineering is a science in itself. Technology provides the tools to help science obtain knowledge by being its eyes, ears, and brains. In some fields, the skill to do something and the ability to study it are so interdependent that science and technology cannot be separated. New technology also frequently requires new knowledge, and new research often requires new technology.

Wants and Needs

Engineers try to prove that their designs work, but they cannot provide solutions to all the wants and needs of society. Engineering affects the social system and culture in a more direct way than scientific research, with immediate implications for the success or failure of human enterprises, and for personal benefit or harm. Decisions in engineering, whether it is designing an airplane, an irrigation system, or countless other systems, inevitably involve social and personal values, as well as scientific judgment. When satisfying needs, technology works with restrictions, involves control, has collateral effects, and is susceptible to failure. The individual creativity of an engineer is a must in technological innovation, but the wants and needs of society directly influence which technologies will be developed, which ones will be paid attention to, which ones will be invested in, and which ones will be used. Society shapes technology, and technology shapes society.

Making Connections

Science and engineering are closely related, and the boundaries between them are hard to define. There are some crosscutting concepts that are used both in science and engineering and these should be integrated into classroom activities.

Patterns—A pattern is the predictable repetition of a variable in a set of data. Finding those constant variables is important in both science and engineering to find causes and explain behaviors.

Cause and effect—A cause is an event or phenomenon that has a direct relationship with other events or phenomena, which is called the effect. There are events that may have more than one cause, and a single cause may have more than one effect, so empirical evidence is necessary to find the causal relationship and to distinguish between correlation and causation.

Scale, proportion, and quantity—The scale of a process can go from the microscopic to the macroscopic level, and it can also vary in energy and time span. Proportions are used to compare phenomena or objects that are at different scales, and the physical quantities are the characteristics of an object or phenomenon that can be measured and used for comparison, such as time, mass, temperature, speed, pressure, etc.

Systems and system models—A system is the portion of the universe that is under study. A model is an artificially created object (e.g., physical structure, diagram, formula) that shows the main characteristics, relationships, structure, and properties of a system. System models are useful to describe, explain, and understand reality better when it is impossible to work with the reality itself.

Energy and matter—Matter is everything that has mass and occupies space. Energy transformations occur all over the universe - in the feeding of living beings, in the dynamics of the atmosphere, and in the evolution of the universe - and they follow the law of conservation of energy (energy can be neither created nor destroyed). All natural processes that occur in matter can be described as a function of the energetic transformations that take place within it.

Structure and function—In a system or object, studying its structure (i.e., the way it is formed and how its elements are arranged) allows a scientist or engineer to have clues about its function. On the other hand, when designing, the function will determine the structure (e.g., designing an efficient lever could involve increasing its length).

Stability and change—In all processes, there are elements that change and others that remain stable. This allows for change while avoiding the complete disintegration of the changing object. Thus, a stable object exists in a dynamic equilibrium, and understanding which elements change and why they change is important in both sciences and engineering.