Although all of us interact with our environment and form opinions about the natural world, biologists take this a step further by using the scientific method to separate fact from fiction. Questions about the natural world continually arise during fieldwork or laboratory observations, as well as from existing publications and discussions with the public or other scientists. When these questions appear to warrant further investigation, biologists follow specific steps to seek answers. The first step, once a question has been identified, is to form suppositions as to the likely answer (hypotheses). Scientists then envision what tests might be performed to disprove these suppositions.
This lesson is part of Certified Herpetological Guide. Enrollment is self-paced, with no deadline to finish (about 50 hours).
