BACKGROUND:
Students should be familiar
with the difference between qualitative and quantitative. Stress
that qualitative is more observation (data is in the form of descriptive
terms) and quantitative stresses repeatable experiments that collects numerical
data. Quantitative is a mathematical treatment of observations.
See if students can describe different fields of science and determine
if the majority of that science is qualitative or quantitative. Discuss
more details about each field and include the type of careers available
in each of the sciences.
PROCEDURE:
- Discuss qualitative
versus quantitative.
- List the following sciences
on the board and have students decide whether it is more qualitative or
quantitative. Discuss what each of the sciences are and the meanings
of the root words.
|
FIELD OF SCIENCE
|
MEANING
|
TYPE (GENERALLY)
|
| chemistry |
chem = chemical |
quantitative |
| geology |
geo = earth |
qualitative |
| biology |
bio = life |
qualitative |
| physics |
phys = physical |
quantitative |
| astronomy |
astro = star |
quantitative |
| oceanography |
oceano = ocean |
quantitative/qualitative |
| hydrology |
hydro = water |
quantitative/qualitative |
| meteorology |
meteor = atmosphere |
qualitative |
| zoology |
zoo = animal |
qualitative |
| botany |
bot = plant |
qualitative |
| physiology |
physio = nature |
qualitative |
| psychology |
psych = mind |
quantitative/qualitative |
-
You can add to the list by giving
students time (in computer lab or homework) to come up with more fields
of science. You may want to include engineering and medical fields.
