book cover features art by Rafael Araujo
Scientific literacy is an essential aspect of an undergraduate education. Recipes for Science responds to this need by providing an accessible introduction to the nature of science and scientific methods appropriate for any beginning college student. The book is adaptable to a wide variety of different courses, such as introductions to scientific reasoning, methods courses in scientific disciplines, science education, and philosophy of science.
Recipes for Science was first published in 2018, and a thoroughly revised second edition was published in 2024. Special features include contemporary and historical case studies from many fields of physical, life, and social sciences; visual aids to clarify and illustrate ideas; text boxes to explore related topics; plenty of exercises to support student recall and application of concepts; suggestions for further readings at the end of each chapter; a glossary with helpful definitions of key terms; and a companion website with course syllabi, PowerPoint presentations, additional exercises, and original short videos on key topics.
Recipes for Science was first published in 2018, and a thoroughly revised second edition was published in 2024. Special features include contemporary and historical case studies from many fields of physical, life, and social sciences; visual aids to clarify and illustrate ideas; text boxes to explore related topics; plenty of exercises to support student recall and application of concepts; suggestions for further readings at the end of each chapter; a glossary with helpful definitions of key terms; and a companion website with course syllabi, PowerPoint presentations, additional exercises, and original short videos on key topics.
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Table of Contents
Introduction: Science and Your Everyday Life Chapter 1 The Nature of Science 1.1 Scientific knowledge of climate change 1.2 Subject matter and methods 1.3 The institution of science 1.4 Defining science Chapter 2 How Science Pursues its Aims 2.1 Public health and how values shape science 2.2 Variety of scientific aims and methods 2.3 Recipes for science 2.4 Science’s origin and knowledge across cultures Chapter 3 Scientific Experiments 3.1 The nature of light and experimental design 3.2 The power of experiments: Intervention and control 3.3 Learning from experiments 3.4 Other uses of experiment Chapter 4 Non-Experimental Investigation 4.1 Paleontology and non-experimental studies 4.2 Observational studies 4.3 Imagination and computation 4.4 Multiple sources of data Chapter 5 Scientific Modeling 5.1 The San Francisco bay and the value of scientific models 5.2 The modeling process 5.3 Varieties of models 5.4 Learning from models Chapter 6 Deductive Reasoning 6.1 The age of the universe and scientific arguments 6.2 Rules of deductive inference 6.3 Deductive reasoning in hypothesis-testing 6.4 Axiomatic methods and modeling Chapter 7 Inductive and Abductive Reasoning 7.1 The Flint water crisis and ampliative inference 7.2 Inductive inference 7.3 Abductive inference 7.4 Testimony and trust Chapter 8 Probabilistic Reasoning 8.1 Medical testing and uses of probabilities 8.2 Probability theory 8.3 Reasoning with conditional probabilities 8.4 Interpreting probabilities Chapter 9 Statistical Reasoning 9.1 World religions and two uses of statistics 9.2 Statistical distribution and correlation 9.3 Central tendency and variability 9.4 Sloppiness, hype, and misuses of statistics Chapter 10 Statistical Inference 10.1 The Higgs boson and drawing inferences with statistics 10.2 Statistics in estimation 10.3 Statistics in hypothesis-testing 10.4 Different approaches to statistical inference Chapter 11 Causal Reasoning 11.1 Poverty and the characteristics of causal reasoning 11.2 The nature of causation 11.3 Testing causal hypotheses 11.4 Causal modeling Chapter 12 Explaining and Theorizing 12.1 Psychiatry and scientific theories 12.2 Using science to explain 12.3 Scientific breakthroughs and theory change 12.4 Scientific progress and the security of scientific knowledge Chapter 13 Science in Society 13.1 Animal behavior and science’s social context 13.2 Participation in science 13.3 Social values and science 13.4 Changes in science and new challenges |
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Web Resources
See the textbook's companion website for sample syllabi, slides, additional exercises and extended projects, and instructor-only resources, including solutions to many of the exercises in the book. The website also provides 17 videos on key topics, with QR-codes at relevant places in the book directing to each video.