========Conversation Below========

“Adrian! Out of 24 hours in a day, you’re spending 8 hours in your school, having a good 9-hour sleep and wasting the rest 7 hours doing nothing but playing video games? Have you even looked at the state of your room? What a mess! Never have I sighted you doing anything different! Books, outdoor games, extra-curricular activities, garbage disposal, mind games, puzzles, guitar, piano, homework, and what not! At least helping your mother with her chores is a burden to you, isn’t it? Isn’t it, Adrian?”, totally vexed up with her son, Maya shouts at the top of her voice which trembles Adrian. 

“Mom, how many times have I told you such stuff are simply boring and out of my league! I’ll clean my room once I’m done reaching Level 5. Okay?”, Adrian calmed down his mother rather casually.

“Simply boring? Just tell me what is not! I know what your problem is, Adrian. Repeatedly playing the same game is making you procrastinate and blocking your thinking ability. Now! Listen up, kid!”, yells Maya, snatching away his Sony PSP.

“I won’t spare you this time, Adrian. Quickly get up and start working!”, screamed Maya.

“But, where do I start from, Mom?”, asked Adrian, puzzled as to what he should be doing.

“Have I not taught you about Systematic approach? How you should go about organizing and planning things efficiently? Now, quickly start off, or you’ll have to skip dinner!”, Maya exits smiling away.

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Most often than not, we must have happened to encounter similar situations. It is important to note that the reason I remarked about such an excerpt from our lives is not because I want to change your(reader’s) habits, but to highlight the importance of an Approach, Scientific Method, which we now call in the 21^st century to get ourselves go about resolving our world’s problems and issues.

“My method is different. I do not rush into actual work. When I get a new idea, I start at once building it up, in my imagination, and make improvements and operate the device in my mind. When I have gone so far as to embody everything in my invention, every possible improvement I can think of, and when I see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form the final product of my brain.” – Nikola Tesla

 

Let us, for the time being scroll back to the history and find out how it all started.

 

It all dates back to the Fourth Millennium BCE in Egypt (as far as the evidence is concerned), which was the then and only manufacturing hub of the “Papyrus”, a thick paper material made from the tissues of the Papyrus plants which were abundantly grown in the banks of the Nile River. The Edwin Smith Papyrus, named after Edwin Smith who was an Egyptologist and a collector of antiquities, in particular was a medical text, meaning a medium of storage of records of examination, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis, to the treatment of disease, injuries, fractures, wounds, dislocations and tumors, diagnosis, and treatment. 

This later led us towards induction-deduction, reasoning and logic; which forms the basis of our fundamental understanding and is basically the framework behind breakthroughs, discoveries, inventions and innovations since then.

 

In this article, I am going to discuss a systematic approach to enhance the way we think, ultimately achieving our goal.

Wikipedia defines “Method” as a pursuit of knowledge, investigation, mode of prosecuting such inquiry, or system. Also, it defines “Scientific Method” as an empirical method of acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science. It involves careful observation, applying rigorous skepticism about what is observed, given that cognitive assumptions can distort how one interprets the observation. It involves formulating hypotheses, via induction, based on such observations; experimental and measurement-based testing of deductions drawn from the hypotheses; and refinement (or elimination) of the hypotheses based on the experimental findings.

It’s a common myth that Scientific Method is strictly valid to Science and its allied subjects, but on the contrary, it is the root framework for solving any kinds of problems.  

 

 

1     1.) OBSERVE – Look around you, read newspapers, talk to your parents, friends, community, and find out about various issues that remain unsolved or need mending. Try to search for problems, no matter how big or small, it’s a problem after all! Whatever is bothering you also counts as one!

2     2.) RESEARCH – Research about the problem. Dig deeper and deeper and deeper. Why? “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” – Arthur Conan Doyle. Yes, it is indeed true because details give you more insight about the causes, recent improvements, effects, and all the facts and figures that you long for. This is a very important phase after getting hold of the problem.

3     3.) HYPOTHESIS – Formulate a temporary hypothesis, as many as you can and record them in your diary or an Excel sheet. This will be of great help in the process of elimination, when you experiment.

       4.) TESTING – Experiments/Hypothesis are meant to be tested and analyzed with data. Therefore, once you’re done with stating your hypothesis, take it to the next level of experimentation and evaluate its efficiency. Continue the process carefully with all the checkpoints in your Excel sheet/Diary.

       5.) ANALYSIS – This is the step which involves all the data collected during the testing of your hypothesis. Graphs, mathematical inferences, pie charts, venn diagrams and all the essential proof which supports the experiment conducted should be feasible.

       6.) CONCLUSION - Try to demonstrate your hypothesis and assess if it is working. If it is not, go to the next one or modify it to improve its efficiency. Repeat the systematic layout again and again and I am sure this will definitely help you get to your goal.

Environmentalists are indeed Scientists who spend most of their time experimenting and investigating various problems that we are facing today.

In this era of Technology, the average environmentalist spends most of their time in analysis. Environmentalists have become the world's R&D department for how to solve the sustainability problem by use of the powerful tools of root causes analysis, process driven problem solving, and model based analysis. They are no longer classic activists. They now see themselves as analytical activists with a passion to firmly establish The Normal Science of Sustainability, as defined in the Kuhn Cycle.

So dear readers, do spend some time lurking around and make sure you do not end up like Adrian (Just kidding!). Spend ample amount of time thinking and theorizing.Most importantly, do not get confused with your thoughts and proceed step by step. If you are facing difficulties anywhere, you can comment below and I am always there to help you out! 

Regards and Thanks

SRUTHI SHANKER P

Nature Enthusiast

Source Credits -

Google Images

Wikipedia

https://www.thwink.org/sustain/glossary/ScientificMethod.htm