The second is research design and execution. The illustrations reinforce some important points about the nature of scientific discovery and scientific excellence. Good science does not require expensive equipment and advanced technology. Creative and innovative science is not done by recipe. Hypotheses and experiments facilitate efficient science, but they are not requirements of good science.
Paleontologists frequently analyze the results of past experiments.
Original field research can be conducted by primary and high school students as an important means of teaching science by doing science. Slides and Captions 1. This complex shell bed in the Pliocene Purisima Formation provides University of California students an opportunity to pose their own research questions about how ancient shell beds formed. Initial observations of variation in the size, shape, orientation, density, and taxonomic composition of individual skeletal elements in the shell bed are used to design sampling procedures. Another team uses 10 cm2 quadrats at 10 cm intervals along a vertical transect to record numbers of individuals of each species.