A framework for promotting understanding of the ecological nature of science (ENOS)

Background/Question/Methods Current practices in teaching biology often involve laboratory-based inquiry that attempts to mirror authentic scientific practice. There is however the tendency to teach scientific investigation through prescribed, lab bench experience, which might limit an individual’s image of science to highly controlled and certain situations. This limitation has consequences for how an individual views the ecological nature of science (ENOS). Previous study has found that students view ecology as a science differently from other highly lab controlled disciplines such as genetics. Results/Conclusions Exposure to a range of methods may help learners to broaden their understanding of science to encompass the approaches ecological scientists often use. To do so, individuals need to develop scientific habits of mind that involve theory building, developing and supporting explanations through inference and models, and using discipline specific means of representing and communicating phenomena. Questionnaire and interview data from different groups of learners (i.e., ages 12-adult) indicate that lay audiences likely have a tendency to (1) view models as a means of replicating and representing static ideas and (2) view scientific data as those which can be directly experienced; a viewpoint that under appreciates the use of inference. Furthermore, some of these individuals had little sense of how evidence is used to support claims or how uncertainty is treated in scientific data sets. Tying these data together, I will present a framework by which ENOS can be developed and suggest areas for further study.