Simply put it is an organized why to look at facts? Question, don’t automatically accept. Many experts believe that we should be teaching our children science literacy as early as kindergarten. A person can use this process regardless of the discipline they study.
Science is not a list of facts. Science is a process that evolves. Experts and public health officials do their best with this evolving knowledge to make a decision.
Here are the six steps in a scientific process or method which can be applied to any critical thinking decision situation.
- Ask a question. Example: Is a lowfat diet the best way to lose weight?
- Make a hypothesis. This is an educated guess of what you might expect to be true. Example: A lowfat diet is the best way to lose weight.
- Do research. Use reliable resources like university websites, National Weight Registry, and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics to gather more information about diets and their effectiveness.
- Experiment to test your research. This step isn’t always necessary for a critical review of a subject but researchers would use this step to design a research study where they may put one group on a lowfat diet and another group on a high carb diet and compare the weight loss between the two groups.
- Analyze the information or data collected. What did you find out about the success of lowfat dieting? Do you think it is the best choice for weight loss? Did the information you found prove or disprove your hypothesis?
- Make a conclusion. Decide to accept or reject your hypothesis based on the information you found and analyzed. In this case the conclusion would most probably be that there are many diets that provide successful weight loss.
At a time when headlines and not facts often inform the public, it is important to take the time to think through the information being presented that may affect your health. Then you can come to the best decision for you based on facts, not emotions or sensationalism.
