Study Tip #24
SCIENCE: STUDYING A TEXT CHAPTER

Outline:

1. Making associations firm and useful
2. The usefulness of studying after reading
3. Definitions of concepts—six aspects of them
4. Goals of science—clues to topics for association
5. Descriptions
6. Explanations
7. Predictions
8. Uses of knowledge
9. Scientific reasoning and arguments
10. Conclusions and implications
11. Two tips to use when study time is limited

Making associations firm and useful
The basic goals of study are to understand information accurately, to make associations between the new knowledge and your own knowledge, and to make the new associations firm and durable. As you read a science chap-ter thoughtfully the first time, you will naturally make some associations, both to your own past knowledge and to the many new facts and ideas and images in the chapter. These associations are useful but incomplete. You should not expect that your natural associations will be enough to master a chapter because he chances are that they will be somewhat random. They may not match your instructor’s model of the field, nor the way he or she approaches writing test questions. How can you study so that you make associations that match the way scientists think about the field? How can you make associations that are important to science?

This Study Tip will explain how to classify the content of the chapter into important categories. Then you can easily collect items that belong together. You might make marginal notes on these categories or you might jot down brief lists of items. Once that is done you will be able to link together parts of the chapter that were previously separated and start learning them in relationship to one another. The next Study Tip will discuss ways to build memory for the chapter.

The usefulness of studying after reading
Some people resist using formal study and memory methods. One reason is that when they read and understand a text chapter, they feel confident that they understand. But how long will their memory last afterwards? Not long, especially if the material has many topics and findings, new vocabulary or math. The natural fading of new memories leads to forgetting what was read, and the interference between similar items of knowledge will leads to confusion of the findings. Students who do not study may not be able to answer questions that involve listing topics and findings or that require noticing relationships among the parts to form larger wholes.

Our brains need short time gaps between thinking of two or more items in order to associate them together. How short? Half a second is the best, unless you can put one item in your working memory and then read the other item and think back and forth between them. Reading does not meet this requirement because it is linear and takes time. When a science text gives a definition or description or explanation or some other kind of information, the text can take several pages and several minutes to cover all the parts. By the time you read later parts and understand them, your memories may fade for the earlier ones. Moreover, unless the author’s writing is very clear, it may not occur to you that the later items should be associated to the earlier ones. That is why it is useful to review after reading and to bring together related information that has been separated. Your explicit studying will help you collect things that belong together in ways that scientists think. After you collect them you can build associations and memory more easily.

Definitions of concepts—six aspects of them
Collect six aspects of concepts that writers will often give to clarify new words. Since this information is explained in more detail in Study Tip #25, I will just list the items. A concept can be thought of as an idea in our minds. The word you learn is the name of the concept.

• The verbal definition
• A visual image used as an example
• One or more positive examples of the concept
• One or more negative examples
• A prototype example
• A unit of measurement

Many test questions will involve various aspects of definitions of concepts. Instructors will check whether you can discriminate among concepts, generalize to far-out examples, and know how to measure things.

Ways to study: After you gather the various aspects of a concept, go in two’s—pick 2 aspects and look back and forth while telling yourself that each in part of the concept, then pick 2 more, and 2 more. Use your judgment as to what is important. Your goal is to think of one asspect and have it remind you of the others.

Goals of science—clues to topics for association
A short summary of the goals of science goes this way: Scientists work to create true descriptions, explanations and predictions of real phenomena and to use this knowledge for human benefit. They also work to support their ideas with solid evidence and reasoning.

If you get used to noticing material in a chapter that fits into these goals, you will be understanding the bigger framework of science and how new information fits into it. One comment: both explanations and predictions will often come in cause-and-effect statements. When you start with a result and inquire into its causes, you are asking for an explanation. But when you start with a phenomenon and ask about what results might occur, you are asking for a prediction.

Descriptions
Descriptions in science differ from definitions. If you describe the orbital period of Mars, you give a specific number—1.9 Earth years. But if you define the concept of orbital period you say that it is the length of time an object in the solar system takes to go around the sun or around its planet.

Collect and gather together descriptions of phenomena. Sometimes you will find all of a description of an object or event in one section in a book; other times it will be scattered and you will need to bring the parts together. Sometimes science writers give the descriptions in ordinary prose and then summarize them in a large chart. For example, when astronomers describe the properties of our solar system’s planets, they often make large tables of the planets’ mass, orbital size and speed, atmosphere, etc.

One major kind of description talks about the attributes and properties of objects and events. Some descriptions are specific to just one thing or event; others summarize the general properties of a whole category of similar objects and events. Many scientific descriptions require numbers. Another major kind of description shows how whole things can be broken into parts, how smaller objects can be linked to others to make larger wholes, and what things are made of. Descriptions of events describe their patterns and their sequence in time. One can also describe things in terms of their environment—their frequency and their distribution.

Ways to study descriptions:

• You can use any tables that authors give to summarize various descriptions. They are very useful.
• You can use brute force methods that involve flash cards, self-tests, cumulative addition to a set and spaced reviews.
• You can use the question “Why does this fact make sense?” about each fact and try to answer it. Simply asking and answering such a question often creates such strong associations that you won’t need to add brute force memorization. If you use the “make sense” question, you will save study time.
• You may want to think of objects (planets, certain chemical enzymes, the life style of bird species) as having a kind of personality and pretend you are that planet person or enzyme person or bird person going about its business. Making such a jump in imagination to personality and empathy taps parts of your memory that are very strong.
• You may want to create little stories about objects with characters and events that come out of the descriptions. “I am the planet Jupiter. I’m the biggest kid on the block, with lots of rings, a deep stinky atmosphere and a big red spot.” Then go into whatever traits of the description you want to make meaningful and to integrate with associations. Review it at spaced intervals to firm it up.

Explanations
An explanation tells some of the factors that influence why an event took the course it did or why a phenomenon has occurred. For example, a section in an astronomy book might ask why the sky looks blue. It is asking for the explanation of the blueness. It will explain that blue light, which is about 400 nm in wavelength, goes through the atmosphere in which the air molecules are about the same size and, therefore, scatter the light. But the red light, about 700 nm, does not scatter as well. So we see more blue.

Explanations are sometimes given in terms of basic physics and chemistry. Other times, they occur as a chain of several events. Often both basic laws and chains of events are combined into one explanation. Scientists do not claim that all explanations are certain, merely probable. And since many events and things combine to influence events, it is somewhat artificial to cite one cause, and scientists know it.

Ways to study explanations:

• Organize a series of causes and effects into a chain (one cause, one effect, another effect, etc.) or a fan (single causes lead to multiple effects), as appropriate. Then study the series of phenomena in sequence. Then using look-away methods for self-testing, try to recall the series.
• When one phenomenon has multiple causes, ask yourself, “Why does this phenomenon occur this way?” and give your explanation. Note exceptions.
• Ask yourself, “Why does this cause-effect series make sense?” and try to give an answer in terms of the underlying physical-chemical causes. If you can’t do that but notice a silly pattern or notice an association that’s personal, use that as mnemonic for your answer.
• Use spaced study to firm up your memory.

Predictions
A prediction goes forward in time from a certain phenomenon and tells what is likely to happen next. Scientists trace out the consequences of events. For example, after a storm on the sun, particles are ejected and interact with the Earth’s magnetosphere leading to the aurora borealis, the Northern Lights. Thus, an observer of the sun who spots a solar flare can predict a coming episode of Northern Lights.

Ways to study predictions:

• As in studying explanations, organize a series of causes and effects into a chain or a fan and try to recall the series.
• When one phenomenon gives rise to several effects, ask yourself, “What are the results of this phenomenon?” and state the effects. Note conditions that influence effects. Note exceptions.
• Ask yourself, “Why does this cause-effect series make sense?” and try to give an answer in terms of the underlying physical-chemical causes. If you can’t do that but notice a silly pattern or notice an association that’s personal, use that as mnemonic for your answer.
• Use spaced study to firm up your memory.

Uses of knowledge
Most science texts have sections that discuss how scientific descriptions, explanations and predictions can be used for human benefit. These topics can be highly interesting.

Ways to study uses of knowledge:

• Use the question “Why does this use or application of knowledge make sense?” and give an answer.
• Think about real-world problems or values that you have experienced or heard about in the news, and then think for a minute how the text’s suggested application fits with the example you are thinking of. Then when asked on a test about uses and applications you may recall the examples you thought over.

Scientific reasoning and arguments
Scientific reasoning describes evidence and develops logical arguments that justify and support scientists’ claims about nature. There is always a first time when scientists think they have discovered a new phenomenon and then try to describe it, explain its causes, predict its results, and discuss its uses for human benefit. Such claims are often controversial and so scientists need to justify them with reasoning. For example, when Darwin proposed his explanation for the origin of plant and animal species and said it was due to natural selection, he reported a massive amount of observations that were consistent with natural selection and inconsistent with other explanations. When the famous astronomers claimed that they had discovered such things as the canals on Mars (!), the expansion of the universe, the mysterious dark matter and more mysterious dark energy, they wrote long articles giving their reasoning, observations, and interpretations.

There are at least three reasons why you will often see scientific reasoning in introductory textbooks: (1) To describe the history of the field; (2) to teach students how to reason about scientific evidence; and (3) to deal directly with the fact that some theories may not yet be fully confirmed.

Ways to study scientific reasoning and arguments:

• Such reasoning will have many premises, inferences and conclusions. Premises are assumptions. Infer-ences are the implications that follow from the premises. Conclusions will be inferred results that follow from the premises and inferences. The ultimate conclusion will claim that the scientist’s claim about a principle or fact is supported. Pick out the reasoning you can find and see if it is consistent and complete. Start by picking out the parts (premises, inferences from premises, and conclusions) and then check their connections.
• When you read an introductory science text, most commonly you will find evidence reported and often only summarized briefly. When an issue is controversial, you will see evidence and reasoning given on both sides and sometimes also see the textbook writer’s own stand. Such cases are hard to analyze and you may have to use ordinary methods to understand and memorize them, if necessary.
• Ask yourself about passages with reasoning and arguments, “Why does this make sense?” It will help your memory.
• Also when a course stresses the learning of scientific reasoning, ask yourself if you can see flaws in the logic. Such a question will help you search for holes in an argument, find them, and remember them.

Conclusions and implications
Since the elements of the goals of science are present in science texts, you can use them on your second reading to pull together and organize the chapter.

• On your second reading, locate the six aspects of definitions; the descriptions of objects of events; the explanations for phenomena; the predicted results of phenomena; the uses of knowledge; and the scientific reasoning and arguments on topics. In many chapters you will find these elements scattered through the chapter.
• Every time you notice that a fact or statement in a chapter is an example of one of these goals of science, you will create a new association and firm up old ones. If after noticing it you go on and think about it, you will make even more associations. Your memory for the material will improve. And you will read the chapter in a different way, not word for word, but by looking for the aspects of definitions and the goals of science.
• You have choices as to how to organize things. You might take notes. Or you might mark little codes in the margin. For anything bearing on definitions, you might put a letter D. For explanations, put a letter E. For predictions, put a letter P. For uses of knowledge, put a letter U. For scientific arguments, put a letter A.
• When asked a question in a test, you can notice if the question asks about the definition or one of the goals of science and search your memory that way. And if you had studied by noticing definitions, descriptions, explanations, etc., then your mind may associate to the answer.

Two tips to use when your study time is limited
A. The first suggestion skips collecting the various kinds of statements. You will read once and then go right to the task of reviewing and self-testing.

1. Read the chapter for understanding. Pay close attention. Avoid reading too fast.
2. Review. Start by scanning to find a clear topic or scientifically significant statement, and then before you look at the details ask a question about it. Look away and try to give an answer, then look back and find the text’s information, look away again and give the answer better. Then move on to the next topic.

Why it works: Self-tests can lead to making mistakes and they arouse helpful emotion and curiosity as to what the right answer is. By asking questions you create a retrieval cue, and by trying to give an answer you work towards the goal of retrieving information from memory. When you get it right, you have made the memory firmer. When you get it wrong and look for the answer and try again, you create an emotionally charged memory because of the sting your mistake has made and the satisfaction your corrected answer gives you.

B. The second suggestion has you search for just one kind of scientific statement.

Let’s assume you will naturally notice the words and definitions and learn what you can. What else should you study when time is short? You may know your instructor’s goals. Hunt for that material. Classify it as definitions, descriptions, cause-and-effect knowledge, uses of knowledge, scientific arguments and reasoning, or building skill in solving problems. Then try to learn it.

If you don’t know your instructor’s goals, then perhaps the most important kind of statements in science texts are the cause-and-effect statements. I suggest you search the chapter for them, mark them with a little C (for cause) in the margin, and then review by going directly to them and try to understand them, relate them, look away and practice recalling them.

Why it works: As you find either what the instructor wants or the cause-and-effect statements, that material will help you organize the chapter’s parts together and see the larger patterns. Your searching will also lead you to classify the material again, and this kind of mental processing builds memory. Of course, since your time is limited and you are limiting your studying, you will miss other major things to build associations for. But at least this quick review will almost guarantee that you find some central important things.

(Dan Hodges. 7/07)

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