PROBLEM SOLVING STRATEGIES:

• In honour of scientist Richard Feynman, and his father, who often posed the question:

"How would you explain this to a Martian?"

Video 1: Richard Feynman - Think Like A Martian

• IF UNABLE TO ACCESS YOUTUBE VIDEO TRY VIEWPURE:Think Like A Martian

The 'fact' is that any understanding of science requires an understanding of 'frames of reference'.

• IF UNABLE TO ACCESS YOUTUBE VIDEO, TRY VIEWPURE:Frames of reference

A problem is often much more easily solved by breaking it down and examining it from two or more unique, 'frames of reference'. This strategy can be used to solve problems not only for science, but across all KLAs - and even human relationships!

People are often surprised to find that the outcome of a single event can appear to be completely different when measured from different frames of reference. Many people think that 'scientists' set out to deliver certainty and an 'absolute' answer to each problem, and they lose confidence when this does not appear to be the case.

In fact, the power of science is not that it provides 'absolute' answers, rather the power of science is that it provides a method to very accurately predict what the different answers will be when a unique event is measured from a given frame of reference, and how those measurements will vary for someone in a different frame of reference.

In most cases, the question of which frame of reference, if any, provides the 'absolute' answer, is not an answer that can yet (if ever) be provide by science. Instead, such questions are usually left to politicians and other guests on twenty four hour TV news channels to argue about.