GEOG 2300 1st Edition Lecture 3Outline of Last Lecture I. Important things needed for learningII. MemoriesIII. Studying tipsIV. Multi-taskingOutline of Current Lecture I. Geography as a ScienceII. Scientific MethodA. HypothesesIII. RealmsIV. ScalesV. SystemsVI. Earth’s energyCurrent LectureI. Geography as a scienceA. Geography is interdisciplinary because it places humans in their environments (technical, physical, cultural, etc.)B. Science: a particular discipline or branch of learning, especially one dealing with measurable or systematic principles rather than intuition or natural abilityC. Science involves observations of natural phenomena or results of experimentsD. Empiricism: a pursuit of knowledge purely through experience, especially by means of observation and sometimes by experimentationE. Babies are great scientists, they’re always experimenting and learning II. Scientific MethodA. Systematic principles involve following an agreed upon set of steps to learn about the world in a way that is replicable and therefore provides the capacity for prediction – scientific methodB. Scientific method provides these systematic principles so that the resulting knowledge can be applicable to similar situationsThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.C. Scientific Method: observations, hypothesis, experimentation, observation, new hypothesis, after a hypothesis stands up to all of the experiments, then there is a conclusion or theory1. Hypotheses can only be refuted or not refuted2. Scientists come up with hypotheses and try to disprove them; they cannot really be proven3. This establishes a predictable, observation based, and rational way forunderstanding the world4. We don’t know things for certain, but what we do know is well-tested 5. Creating hypotheses is reductionist, the scientist takes a big idea and breaks it into supporting ideas and tries to disprove the small ideas in order to see if the big idea stands – analyzing6. Taking the small ideas and forming an overall pattern is synthesisD. The scientific method is very important and we actually use it all of the timeIII. RealmsA. Atmosphere – layer of gases surrounding the earth B. Lithosphere – outermost solid layer of the earthC. Hydrosphere – the earth’s water (oceans, rivers, ice, water vapor)D. Biosphere – all living organismsIV. ScalesA. Describes spatial and temporal scales (space and time)B. There are global, continental, regional, local, and individual scalesC. Processes and features can operate on different scalesD. Climate – large scale, weather – smaller scales (local)V. SystemsA. System: a set of related or organized objectsB. Physical geography works with flow systems (energy or matter flows in and between the realms)C. There can be man-made systems and natural systemsVI. Earth’s EnergyA. Thermodynamics – works in open and closed systems1. Open – energy or matter flows in and out of the system (ex: river)2. Closed – energy or matter is contained in the system (ex: water cycle)B. 1st law of thermodynamics – energy can change forms, but it’s not created or destroyed; deals with quantity of energyC. 2nd law of thermodynamics – entropy (disorder), amount of usable energy decreases as energy changes form; deals with quality of
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