Solved by verified expert: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
the_biology_primer._the_scientific_method_lab_1_.pdf
sci_method_data_collection_blank.xlsx
class_data_bot_ref_5719.xlsx
Unformatted Attachment Preview
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
...
Purchase answer to see full
attachment
