scientific method

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an introduction to scientific method assignment. attached is the lab assignment, my excel experiment, and class experiment outcomes. assignment due 8pm eastern time on sunday 2/11

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An  Introduc+on  to  the  Scien+fic  Method   Name_____________________________________________________________  Class  ______________   Lab  website  -­‐  h:p://thebiologyprimer.com/introducIon-­‐to-­‐the-­‐scienIfic-­‐method   QUESTION   In  this  lab  you  will  be  u+lizing  the  scien+fic  method  in  order  to  address  the  following  ques+on:     • Can  humans  determine  the  color  of  Ski@les®  by  taste  alone?     What  quali+es  of  this  ques+on  make  it  testable?     Note:  Be  sure  to  use  complete  sentences  on  all  of  your  responses  in  this  class.       HYPOTHESIS   Based  on  your  experience,  develop  your  own  hypothesis  addressing  the  ques+on  of  this  experiment.     What  are  the  characteris+cs  of  a  well-­‐developed  hypothesis?   EXPERIMENT   In  any  experiment,  you  have  a  dependent  and  an  independent  variable.  When  trying  to  determine   which  is  which  in  an  experiment,  simply  fill  in  the  following:       _________________________  depends  on  _________________________.   (dependent  variable)                                                                                            (independent  variable)     Determine  the  dependent  and  independent  variables  of  this  experiment.  Write  them  in  the  blanks   above.         Note:  Good  experimenta9on  requires  a  scien9st  to  pay  extraordinary  a;en9on  to  detail  during  the   experiment.  Read  the  experimental  procedures  and  analysis  very  carefully  as  you  proceed  in  this   inves9ga9on.         h:p://thebiologyprimer.com/introducIon-­‐to-­‐the-­‐scienIfic-­‐method   1   An  Introduc+on  to  the  Scien+fic  Method   2   EXPERIMENTAL  PROTOCOL   1. At  home,  you  will  perform  the  following  experimental  protocol  on  yourself  and  one  family  member   or  friend.     2. Wash  your  hands  with  soap.     3. Each  person  will  receive  3  Ski@les®  of  each  color  (for  a  total  of  15).   4. Blindfold  the  first  subject.   5. The  handler  will  remove  the  allo@ed  number  of  Ski@les®  from  the  package  and  place  them  onto  a   paper  plate.  The  subject  should  be  blindfolded  for  this  part  so  they  can  not  see  the  colors.     6. The  handler  will  give  the  subject  one  of  the  Ski@les®  and  the  subject  will  predict  its  color.  The  color   must  be  chosen  randomly!!!!  If  the  color  is  correctly  iden+fied,  it  is  deemed  “correct.”  If  the  color  is   incorrectly  iden+fied  (or  the  subject  can  not  iden+fy  the  color),  it  is  deemed  “incorrect.  "   7. Record  results  in  the  tables  below  as  tallies.  For  “ALL  COLORS”  simply  add  up  the  tallies  of   “correct”  and  “incorrect”  for  the  subject.     8. Repeat  4-­‐7  for  the  other  test  subject.   9. Record  your  results  in  the  class  discussion  board  of  Blackboard®  by  the  specified  due  date   according  to  the  instruc+ons  given  to  you  by  your  instructor.       Tally  data  here  from  your   at-­‐home  experiment   SUBJECT  2   SUBJECT  1   DATA   RED   correct     RED   correct     incorrect   incorrect   ORANGE   correct     ORANGE   correct     incorrect   incorrect   YELLOW   correct     YELLOW   correct     incorrect   incorrect   GREEN   correct     GREEN   correct     incorrect   incorrect   PURPLE   correct     PURPLE   correct     incorrect   incorrect   ALL  COLORS   incorrect     correct   ALL  COLORS   incorrect     correct   h:p://thebiologyprimer.com/introducIon-­‐to-­‐the-­‐scienIfic-­‐method   3   An  Introduc+on  to  the  Scien+fic  Method   Results   Each  subject  that  you  tested  in  your  group  is  known  as  a  replicate.  The  more  replicates  you  include  in   your  analysis,  the  more  reliable  your  findings  become.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  certain  results  can   simply  happen  by  chance.  For  example,  if  you  flipped  a  coin  twice  and  got  heads  both  +mes,  it  does   not  mean  you  are  certain  to  get  a  heads  on  a  third  coin  toss.  For  this  reason,  we  are  going  to  collect  as   many  replicates  from  the  class  as  we  have  students.  Fill  in  the  following  table  with  the  results  from  the   whole  class,  reported  in  the  discussion  board  of  Blackboard®.     Assimilate  data  on  this   page  from  your  en+re  class   RED   correct   1     incorrect   ORANGE   correct     incorrect   YELLOW   correct     incorrect   GREEN   correct     incorrect   PURPLE   correct     incorrect   ALL  COLORS   incorrect     correct   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24     h:p://thebiologyprimer.com/introducIon-­‐to-­‐the-­‐scienIfic-­‐method   4   An  Introduc+on  to  the  Scien+fic  Method   Results   RED   correct   25     incorrect   ORANGE   correct     incorrect   YELLOW   correct     incorrect   GREEN   correct     incorrect   PURPLE   correct     incorrect   ALL  COLORS   incorrect     correct   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55     h:p://thebiologyprimer.com/introducIon-­‐to-­‐the-­‐scienIfic-­‐method   An  Introduc+on  to  the  Scien+fic  Method   5   ANALYSIS   As  you  conduct  this  experiment,  you  may  feel  that  your  hypothesis  may  or  may  not  be  supported  (or   you  may  get  a  lot  of  conflic+ng  results).  In  order  to  summarize  data  of  this  nature,  we  use  sta+s+cs.  A   common  sta+s+c  is  mean.  However,  simply  calcula+ng  the  mean  of  the  two  groups  doesn’t  tell  us   whether  or  not  those  two  groups  are  “sta+s+cally  significantly”  different.  For  that  we  need  a  sta+s+cal   test.  For  this  analysis,  we  will  be  using  a  simple  test  known  as  an  unpaired  t  test.     Unpaired  t  test   In  our  case  the  unpaired  t  test  will  compare  the  means  of  two  groups.  Our  two  groups  are   “correct”  and  “incorrect.”    With  this  test,  we  will  be  able  to  determine  whether  or  not  the   difference  in  the  means  of  correctly  iden+fied  Ski@les®  differs  from  incorrectly  iden+fied  Ski@les®.   In  other  words,  we  will  be  able  to  determine  whether  or  not  we  can  discriminate  among  the   Ski@les®  flavors  based  on  taste  alone.       Protocol   Go  to:  h@p://www.graphpad.com/quickcalcs/@est1.cfm   1. Under  “1.  Choose  data  entry  format”,  select  “Enter  up  to  50  rows.”   2. Under  “2.  Enter  data”  you  will  input  your  data   a.    First  change  the  label  to  correspond  with  the  color  of  the  Ski@les®  and  the  correctness   of  the  result.  For  example,  if  you  are  tes+ng  the  means  of  red  Ski@les®,  label  group  1  as   “Red  correct”  and  group  2  as  “Red  incorrect”.   b.      Input  the  data  from  those  two  columns  only.     3. Under  “3.  Choose  a  test”,  select  “Unpaired  t  test.”   4. Under  “4.  View  the  results”,  click  on  “Calculate  now.”   5. Repeat  steps  1-­‐4  for  each  color  (e.g.  red,  orange,  yellow,  green,  purple),  and  for  “ALL   COLORS.”   If  you  have  never  taken  a  sta+s+cs  class  before,  the  results  spit  out  by  QuickCalcs  (GraphPad  Sonware,   2013)  might  be  a  li@le  in+mida+ng.  Have  no  fear!  We  will  just  focus  on  the  sta+s+cs  that  will  answer   our  ques+on.     UNPAIRED  T-­‐TEST     p  value     The  p  value  allows  us  to  determine   p  <  0.05   p  ≥  0.05   whether  or  not  the  means  of  the  two   samples  are  “significantly”  different.   INSIGNIFICANT   SIGNIFICANT   When  you  take  a  sta+s+cs  class,  you   will  learn  how  this  sta+s+c  is  created.   “From  this   For  our  purposes,  it  is  sufficient  to  be   experiment,  it   μcorrect  <  μincorrect   μcorrect  >  μincorrect   able  to  interpret  this  sta+s+c  without   can  not  be   actually  knowing  how  to  calculate  it.     determined     whether   The  p  value  is  the  probability  (ranging   from  zero  to  one),  that  answers   humans  can  or   “Humans  can   “Humans  can   whether  or  not  the  observed  means  of   can  not   not  iden+fy   iden+fy  color   two  popula+ons  (e.g.  “correct”  and   determine  color   color  based   based  on   based  on  taste.”   on  taste.”   taste.”   “incorrect”  in  our  study)  are  real  and   not  merely  a  product  of  chance.  In   Figure  1.  Interpre+ng  the  results  of  the  “before”  vs.   most  biological  studies,  if  the  p  value  is   “aner”  treatment.     less  that  0.05  we  can  state  that  there     is,  in  fact,  a  “sta+s+cal”  difference  between  the  two  popula+ons.  This  is  somewhat  of  an  ar+ficial   cut  off,  but  it  is  one  that  is  widely  accepted  in  this  field  of  study.  Therefore,  in  our  study  if  you  get   a  p  value  less  than  0.05,  you  can  state  that  there  is  a  “significant”  difference  between  the   “correct”  group  and  the  “incorrect”  group  for  that  color.   h:p://thebiologyprimer.com/introducIon-­‐to-­‐the-­‐scienIfic-­‐method   An  Introduc+on  to  the  Scien+fic  Method   6   Mean   Mean   The  mean  is  simply  the  average.  If  you  find  that  there  is  a  significant  p  value  (p  <  0.05),  then  the  next   step  is  to  look  at  the  means  (Fig.  1).  If  the  mean  is  larger  for  the  “correct”  group,  this  means  that   humans  can  iden+fy  that  color  by  taste  alone.  If  the  mean  is  larger  for  the  “incorrect”  group,  this  means   that  humans  can  not  iden+fy  that  color  by  taste  alone.  If  the  p  value  is  insignificant  (p≥0.05),  we  assume   there  is  no  difference  between  those  means.  In  other  words,  the  results  for  our  experiment  are   inconclusive  for  the  ability  for  humans  to  discriminate  color  based  on  taste  alone.       RED   RESULTS   p  =  0.02   2.5   In  a  t  test,  it  is  customary  to  report  the  mean  (m)  of  the  sample,  as  well   2.3   as  the  p  value.  You  will  report  your  results  like  the  example  in  fig  2.   2.0     1.5     Below  construct  a  bar  graph  for  each  test.     • Be  sure  to  include  the  p  value  of  each  test.     1.0   1.1   • Be  sure  to  record  the  mean  of  “correct”  and  “incorrect   0.5   above  or  inside  its  corresponding  bar.     • Be  sure  to  provide  numerical  values  on  the  y  axis.       correct   incorrect     Figure  2.  Example  result.   RED   Mean   Mean   ALL  COLORS   correct   incorrect   correct   incorrect   YELLOW   Mean   Mean   ORANGE   correct   incorrect   correct   incorrect   PURPLE   Mean   Mean   GREEN   correct   incorrect   correct   incorrect   Figure  3.  Humans’  ability  to  detect  the  color  of  Ski@les®  based  on  taste  alone.   h:p://thebiologyprimer.com/introducIon-­‐to-­‐the-­‐scienIfic-­‐method   An  Introduc+on  to  the  Scien+fic  Method   7   CONCLUSION   A  conclusion  compares  the  results  from  the  analysis  and  either  supports  or  rejects  the  hypothesis.  In  our   case,  we  were  able  to  determine  whether  humans  can  dis+nguish  the  colors  of  Ski@les®  simply  based  on   the  taste.  Using  the  “ALL  COLORS”  sample,  accept  or  reject  your  hypothesis  below  in  complete   sentences.  Also,  explain  why  you  accepted  or  rejected  your  hypothesis,  based  on  your  p  value  and   means.     A  conclusion  can  also  elaborate  on  the  findings  of  the  study.  You  have  conducted  a  much  more   detailed  analysis  of  humans’  ability  to  discriminate  specific  colors  of  Ski@les®.  Which  colors  were   humans  able  to  “significantly”  dis+nguish?  Which  ones  could  they  not  “significantly”  dis+nguish?   No  experiment  is  perfect.  Describe  one  way  that  this  experiment  could  be  improved.   What  biases  existed  in  this  experiment?  A  bias  is  defined  as,  “an  inclina+on  that  prevents  an   unprejudiced  considera+on  of  a  ques+on;  a  prejudice.”   h:p://thebiologyprimer.com/introducIon-­‐to-­‐the-­‐scienIfic-­‐method   Red correct Subject 1: Subject 2: incorrect 2 1 1 2 Orange correct incorrect 2 1 2 1 Yellow correct 2 1 Yellow incorrect 1 2 Green correct incorrect 1 2 2 1 Purple correct incorrect 2 1 1 2 All Colors correct 9 7 All Colors incorrect 6 8 Red Subject 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 correct incorrect 2 3 2 2 3 1 2 1 2 2 1 0 1 2 2 2 1 1 2 1 2 3 3 3 1 0 3 2 2 1 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 2 1 1 2 3 2 1 2 1 2 2 1 2 1 0 0 2 3 0 1 1 2 Orange correct incorrect 1 1 2 2 1 2 1 2 2 3 1 2 2 3 1 0 1 1 2 3 1 2 2 0 3 1 2 1 2 2 Yellow correct 2 2 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 0 2 1 1 0 1 1 2 2 1 0 2 1 1 3 0 2 1 2 1 1 0 2 1 2 1 1 2 1 3 2 1 2 3 3 1 3 1 3 3 0 2 2 2 1 0 1 3 2 1 Yellow incorrect 3 1 2 1 2 2 1 2 0 1 2 1 0 0 2 1 3 2 0 0 3 1 1 1 2 3 2 0 1 2 Green correct incorrect 2 0 0 2 1 1 2 2 2 1 2 1 0 0 2 2 1 2 3 2 1 1 3 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 3 3 1 2 2 1 1 1 2 1 2 3 3 2 1 3 2 1 0 1 2 2 0 1 2 2 2 2 1 Purple correct incorrect 2 1 2 2 1 3 2 3 0 2 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 1 1 3 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 0 1 3 1 2 3 2 2 2 3 3 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 2 2 0 2 1 2 All Colors correct 7 7 7 10 7 8 9 9 9 10 6 5 7 9 6 8 2 6 10 11 6 11 11 11 8 3 10 8 9 7 All Colors incorrect 8 8 8 5 8 7 6 6 6 5 9 10 8 6 9 7 13 9 5 4 9 4 4 4 7 12 5 7 6 8
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Attached.

SCIENTIFIC METHODS

STUDENTS NAME

CLASS

AN INTRODUCTION TO SCIENTIFIC METHODS: Can human determine the color of
skittles?

QUESTION a

What makes this experiment testable is the fact that human beings have different perceptions of
taste related to color.

HYPOTHESIS.
Human can determine the color of skittles through tasting without sight.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A WELL DEVELOPED HYPOTHESIS.
1.
2.
3.
4.

It shoul...


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