Observations and Inferences

Distinguish observation from inference and strengthen your science reasoning skills!

Observations and Inferences - fill in the blanks to complete your notes about what observations and inferences are. Observation is the active obtaining of information from a primary source. In living beings, observation uses the senses. In science, observation can also involve the perception and recording of data via the use of scientific instruments.The term may also refer to any data collected during the scientific activity.Observations can be qualitative, that is, only the absence or presence of a property is noted (or making use of adjectives and adverbs to describe something),or quantitative if a numerical value is attached to the observed phenomenon by counting or measuring.One person's observations of something should in theory be the same as others although this is not always the case.Due to system 1 (Long term memory) thinking we may often overlook many aspects of what is happening, reasoning them to be unimportant and so discarded.Inferences are steps in reasoning to draw conclusions from your observations. Different Inferences may be drawn by different people from the same observations.Inferences can be made by system 1 thought without us even realising and so should be checked using system 2 thinking (working memory).Good scientists make detailed observations and then try and draw inferences from them.They then make these into "Hypothesis" a proposed explanation, that can then be tested using the scientific method.Good scientists make it clear whether something is an observation (from primary data) or an inference. Sort the statements about this picture into observations and inferences Observations The person has long hair The person is holding a phone The person's mouth isn't smiling The person has half closed eyes The person is holding a cup The person has something blue covering them The person's hair is brown Inferences The person is unwell The person is talking to someone The person is drinking The person is feeling hot The person is feeling cold The person is a woman The person is unhappy The person is wearing a blanket