GNS301

General Science and Environment

Lecture 1
Course Introduction

Kwara State University

The University for Community Development
What Is Environmental Science?
• A group of sciences that attempt to explain how
life on the Earth is sustained, what leads to
environmental problems, and how these problems
can be solved.

• Many sciences are important to environmental

science. These include:
biology (especially ecology, that part of biology that
deals with the relationships among living things and
2 their environment), geography, chemistry, geology,
Features of Environmental Science
• It involves many sciences.

• It includes sciences, but also involves related

nonscientific fields that have to do with how
we value the environment, from environmental
philosophy to environmental economics.

• It deals with many topics that have great

emotional effects on people, and therefore are
subject to political debate and to strong
3 feelings that often ignore scientific
Your Role as a Student and as a Citizen

To understand how to think through

environmental issues so that you can arrive at
your own decisions.

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Course Objectives
• To appreciate the world of science
• To understand the environment from a
scientific viewpoint, especially in answering these
questions:
• What is nature like when it is undisturbed by people?
• What are the effects of people on nature?
• What are the effects of nature on people?

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Course Topics
1) Course Introduction. 8) Food and agriculture.

2) Principles of scientific 9) Air quality and

Inquiry. pollution.

3) Matter and energy. 10) Climate change

4) Basics of ecology. 11) Water quality and

pollution.
5) Ecosystems and biomes.
12) Energy.
6) Human Population &
demographics. 13) Waste.

7) Human health & Env.

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Other Course Info
• Weekly 2-hour lecture. Same time. Same venue.
• Lecture notes (PowerPoint) to be available online
via OneDrive.
• Course textbook: Any good textbook on
Environmental Science.
• CBT assessments and examination (dates as per
KWASU calendar).
• Question types: MCQ, completion, and true/false.
• Key contact:
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Principles of Scientific Inquiry
GNS301 – General Science and Environment
Lecture 2

Kwara State University

The University for Community Development
Lecture Objectives
• At the end of this lecture, you should be able to:
• Differentiate between science and pseudoscience.
• Explain each of the steps of the scientific method.
• Define the parts of a controlled experiment.
• Identify the variable, control group, and experimental
group in a given experiment.
• Explain how bias is minimised research with blind and
double-blind studies.

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A little story…
• Up through the 20th century, one of the most
serious diseases of mankind was smallpox.
• One of out every 10 children born in France and
Sweden died of smallpox.

• The only known “cure” was to contract the

disease and recover.
• Some inoculated themselves
with fluid and pus from the sick,
hoping to contract a mild case
10 and survive.
The First Vaccination
• A British physician named
Edward Jenner observed
that dairymaids living in
his hometown often
contracted cowpox, a
nonlethal disease with
similar symptoms to
Edward Jenner vaccinating a child with
smallpox. cowpox from a dairymaid.
Source: Bettman Archive / Corbis.

• He decided to
intentionally infect a
11 young boy with cowpox,
Eradication
• A different virus was
eventually discovered for
use in smallpox
vaccinations.
• Produced much milder
symptoms.
• Smallpox was declared
eradicated by the World
Health Organization in 1980. A monument dedicated to smallpox
eradication at the WHO headquarters in

• The same basic technique Geneva. Source: Wikimedia.

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has been used to develop
Scientific Inquiry

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Science
• The word science is derived from a Latin verb
meaning “to know”.
• An approach to understanding the natural
world – a collection of facts about the
natural world.
• Also a dynamic process, a systematic way to
investigate the natural world.

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Data in Science
• Scientists collect objective data (singular,
datum)
• Facts (or recorded observations) with which
science works.
• Processed to give information.
• Data fall into two categories:
• Qualitative, or descriptions rather than
measurements.
• Quantitative, or recorded measurements, which are
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sometimes organised into tables and graphs.
 • Sometimes, both data
types compliment
each other.

Jane Goodall collecting qualitative

data on
chimpanzee behavior.
Goodall recorded her observations in
field notebooks, often with sketches of
the animals’ behavior.

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Types of Scientific Inquiry
• Inquiry is the search for information and
explanation.
• Two main types of scientific inquiry:
• discovery science
• hypothesis-based science

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Induction in Discovery Science
• Inductive reasoning draws conclusions
through the logical process of induction
(conclusion based on evidence)
• Repeat specific observations can lead to
important generalisations
• For example, “the sun always rises in the east”

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Deduction in Hypothesis-Based Science
• Observations can lead us to ask questions and
propose hypothetical explanations called
hypotheses.
• Deductive reasoning uses general premises to
make specific predictions
• For example,
if organisms are made of cells (premise 1), and humans are
organisms (premise 2),
then humans are composed of cells (deductive
prediction)
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Basic Rules of Science
• Science assumes that everything in the universe can
be explained, given enough data and experimentation.
• All ideas in science are constantly being tested,
evaluated, and re-considered.
• Hypothesis: Testable prediction based on prior knowledge
and observation.
• Can be supported or rejected based on an experiment.
• Theory: Broad explanation based on many experiments and
high amounts of data.
• Examples: Evolution, Plate Tectonics, Big Bang

• Discoveries must be reproducible – designed and

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Scientific Method
• All scientific
studies,
regardless of
complexity,
follow the
same series of
steps, called
the
scientific
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method.
Scientific Method
• The first step is making an observation.
• Information gathered by noticing specific details of a
phenomenon.

• Dr. Edward Jenner observed that dairymaids who

contracted cowpox seemed to be protected
from the more deadly smallpox.

The Dairy Maid, 1650s, by Aelbert

Cuyp.

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Scientific Method
• The goal is to be able to explain the observation.
• A hypothesis, or testable explanation, will be
made based on the scientist’s prior experience
and research.
• Hypotheses are preliminary explanations – they can be
and are often proven false.

• Dr. Jenner’s hypothesis was that exposure to

cowpox would grant immunity to smallpox.
• The hypothesis must be tested.
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Scientific Method
• The experiment tests the hypothesis under
controlled conditions.
• A controlled experiment attempts to test a single
variable, while keeping all others constant.
• The experimental group receives the variable, while the
control group does not.
• Dr. Jenner’s experiment was to inoculate the 8 year-
old son of his gardener with fluid from a cowpox
pustule, allow the infection to pass, then repeat
with a smallpox pustule.
• The boy (experimental group) survived 20 inoculations
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without succumbing to smallpox!
Scientific Method
• The final step is communication, where the
results are published and reviewed by others to
check for errors, bias, or other issues.
• Dr. Jenner submitted his study to the Royal
Society for Medicine, but was told he needed
more proof.
“The Cow-Pock—or—the
Wonderful Effects of the New
Inoculation!—vide. the
Publications of ye Anti-Vaccine
Society.”
- Satirical cartoon, 1802.

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Other Factors Affecting Experiments
• Accounting for every single variable in a scientific study
is nearly impossible. There are many factors that can
cause error.
• There is where probability comes in. This is the likeliness
that a result occurred simply due to random chance.
• This can be countered by increasing sample size, or the number
of observations used in an experiment or study.

• Dr. Jenner was able to locate several other parents who

were willing to volunteer their children. He even
included his own 11 month-old son in the study.
• The results were finally published. Jenner called his
26 technique vaccination after the Latin word for cow
• Controlled experiments aren’t always possible or
ideal.
• Natural experiments (or discovery science) are
conducted in the field under normal
circumstances.
• The advantage is that these experiments take place in a
more accurate, realistic environment.
• The disadvantage is that natural phenomena are
often very difficult to find.

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Combating Bias
• Another significant problem in science is bias;
the preference for an experiment to turn out in
a certain way.
• Bias is not always intentional, but must be
controlled by the experimental design.
• A blind experiment is conducted so the
experimental subjects do not know which is the
control and which is the experimental group.
• Eliminates the “placebo effect”
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The Culture of Science
• Most scientists work in teams, which often
include graduate and undergraduate students
• Good communication is important in order to
share results through seminars, publications,
and websites

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Science, Technology, and Society
• The goal of science is to understand natural
phenomena
• The goal of technology is to apply scientific
knowledge for some specific purpose
• Science and technology are interdependent
• Science is marked by “discoveries,” while
technology is marked by “inventions”

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Science, Technology, and Society
• The combination of science and technology has
dramatic effects on society
• For example, the discovery of DNA by James Watson and
Francis Crick allowed for advances in DNA
technology such as testing for hereditary diseases

• Ethical issues can arise from new technology,

but have as much to do with politics, economics,
and cultural values as with science and
technology
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Limitations of Science
• In science, observations and experimental results
must be repeatable
• Science cannot support or falsify supernatural
explanations, which are outside the bounds of
science

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Pseudoscience & Scientific Fraud

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Pseudoscience
• A far different idea is pseudoscience, which
appears or claims to be science, but does not
follow scientific principles.

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Spontaneous Generation
• The theory that life arose spontaneously from non-
living matter persisted from ancient times through
the 19th century.
• One recipe for life called for dirty garments and
husks of wheat to be added to a jar.
• Wait 21 days, and mice appear!
• This belief was based in false
science.
• Could it be replicated
consistently?
• Were any other possible
explanations tested?
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Alchemy
• The primary goal of alchemists
during the middle ages was to
discover a way to transform
materials of little value (such as
lead) to gold.
• A chemist named Hennig Brand in
1669 was studying urine, observing
The Alchemist in Search of
that it had a color similar to the Philosophers Stone
(1771) by Joseph Wright.
gold.
• He accidentally discovered
36 phosphorus; an element that glowed.
Astrology
• Astrology is another
example of
pseudoscience.
• A “new” zodiac chart
was created by the
Minnesota
Planetarium Society
to reflect the change
in the Earth’s
37 rotation.
Scientific Fraud
• There are many examples of published studies or
report that have been later found biased, flawed, or
outright fraudulent.
• These are always detected, eventually, due to the
scientific method and peer review.
• The net effect is loss of time, resources, and public mistrust.
• In 1998, Dr. Andrew Wakefield published a study in a
British journal (The Lancet) documenting a link
between the MMR vaccine and autism in children.
• In the following year, over a thousand articles were
written about the possible link, very few by actual experts
in the field.
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• Vaccine rates dropped from 92% to 85% in the U.K., with
Autism / MMR Retraction
• Wakefield’s conclusions
were found out to be
fraudulent and that he
had manipulated the data.
• Several outbreaks of measles
and mumps occurred across
the world from 2002-2008.
• Nigeria has seen a similar
effect, with vaccination
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rates below WHO
Review of Objectives
• By now you should be able to:
• Differentiate between science and pseudoscience.
• Explain each of the steps of the scientific method.
• Define the parts of a controlled experiment.
• Identify the variable, control group, and experimental
group in a given experiment.
• Explain how bias is minimised research with blind and
double-blind studies.

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 Thank you!

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