Scientific habits of mind are an integral part of contemporary definitions of scientific literacy being
presented in national reform documents such as Science For All Americans (American Association for
the Advancement of Science, 1989) and the National Science Education Standards (National Research
Council, 1996). These scientific habits also serve as an important link betveen scientific inquiry and
science education. This article focuses on three habits associated with personal values and attitudes and
one habit associated with the social skills of doing science. These four habits of mind balance the
objectivist perspective that misrepresents science as a cold and emotionless abstraction (Pert, 1997) by
highlighting a subjective view of scientific activity that is often omitted from school science. The four
habits ofmind arefirst illustrated through the story ofa modern scientific investigation and then described
as the basis ofa school laboratory science experience. Implications related to the integration of thesefour
habits of mind into science laboratory reform are discussed.