Biology II - Honors Introduction to Unit 1 Research Skills/Experimental Design

Gold Slide: These are notes that are very important and should be recorded in your Science Notebook in the Cornell Note Format. TOPICMAIN IDEAS/DETAILS Quality of Notes Nice neat notes that are legible and use indentations when appropriate. Example of an indent. Skip a line between topics. Don’t skip pages. Use front and back Make visuals clear, labeled, and well drawn. Use yellow highlighter to highlight key material to study for a test. Use an orange highlighter to highlight vocabulary terms and definitions.

Navy Slides: These are to help us reflect on the concepts we cover. Read carefully, complete task as described or answer questions completely. Reflection may include one of the following: Concept Map Venn Diagram Summary Paragraph with fill in the blank Diagram to label Critical Thinking Question Activity or Lab Free Reflection: You will choose how you want to process the concept covered. You can choose one of the above or select a format of your own.

Keep an eye out for “The Lion” and raise your hand as soon as you see him. He will be hiding somewhere in the slideshow. GazeGaze by BearlyFelineBearlyFeline Digital ArtDigital Art / Drawings & Paintings / Animals© BearlyFelineDrawings & PaintingsAnimalsBearlyFeline

“I’ll be about this size.” So don’t forget to look for me during the slide- show, and be sure to raise your hand when you see me.

Objectives Addressed in Unit 1: ObjectiveBenchmarks 1.Formulate hypotheses and design appropriate experiments. 2.Design and carry out experiments on a variety of topics. 3.Review the Laws of Probability. 4.Analyze self-generated experimental results using Chi-square and T-test tests of significance. 5.Demonstrate an ability to do a literature search. 6.Read and evaluate selected research papers. SI-H-A1 through A7 SI-H-B1, B2, B4, B5

Unit 1 – Part 1 Experimental Design

Key Terms for Unit 1 – Part 1 Be sure to highlight these vocabulary words and their definitions in ORANGE when they appear in the notes. HypothesisIndependent Variable Dependent VariableConstants Control GroupRepeated Trials QualitativeQuantitative AccuracyPrecision

Read the scenario below and identify the following components of an experiment. Write your answers in your notebook. A shopping mall wanted to determine whether the more expensive “Tough Stuff” floor wax was better than the cheaper “Steel Seal” floor wax at protecting its floor tiles against scratches. One liter of each brand of floor wax was applied to each of 5 text sections of the main hall of the mall. The test sections were all the same size and were covered with the same kind of tiles. Five (5) other test sections received no wax. After 3 weeks, the number of scratches in each of the test sections was counted. Identify the Independent variable, dependent variable, constants, repeated trials, and control.

TOPICMAIN IDEAS/DETAILS Scientific Research A method for solving problems Enjoyed by all scientists Scientists are human, can be bad-tempered, pig- headed, and jealous of the success of others. And yet, Scientific Method is the most powerful tool devised for the analysis of a problem in the natural world.

TOPICMAIN IDEAS/DETAILS Scientific Research Number of recognizable stages Observe interesting or puzzling phenomenon Make a guess to explain phenomenon Devise a test to determine if guess is true or false Carry out test, results determine if explanation was a good one or not. May lead to another explanation and further test Is original in thinking First original point of thought is the hypothesis – conjecture or prediction for the outcome of an experiment Second original point of thought – design the experiment to show if hypothesis is correct or not

TOPICMAIN IDEAS/DETAILS Experimental Design Requires ingenuity and a suspicious nature Features common to all good experiments: Discrimination – capable of clearly distinguishing between different hypotheses. Replication & generality – Repeated trials - repeat experiment multiple times to obtain results that can be statistically analyzed Generality – must be cautious of generalizing results Example: If hypothesis is about mammals, inadequate to carry out experiment only on lab rats. Control group – unchanged during the experiment; used to detect and measure any effects of unknown factors.

TOPICMAIN IDEAS/DETAILS Experimental Design Features common to all good experiments (continued) “Blind” – to avoid bias, experiments are conducted without the investigators or subjects knowing which treatment is being observed. Example – blind clinical trials for new drugs Measurement – taken in most experiments Must be accurate – accuracy refers to the nearness of a measurement to the standard or true value. Must be precise - precision refers to the closeness of two or more measurements to each other

TOPICMAIN IDEAS/DETAILS Experimental Design Example of Accuracy and Precision

Practice: Analyze the following two Experimental Examples to critique for good Experimental Design Experiment 1: Do Plants Give Off Water Vapor? Forty bean plants, growing in pots, were covered one afternoon by individual glass containers and left in the laboratory overnight. Next morning, the inside of the lid of each container was found to be covered in droplets of a fluid which proved to be water. Conclusion: Plants generally give off water vapor. Analyze for Good Experimental Design: 1.Control: What were other possible sources for the water vapor? 2.Is the Conclusion valid? Why or why not? Support your answer with direct evidence from the experiment and your knowledge of good experimental design. 3.What parts of the experiment followed good experimental design? Be specific. 4.How could the experiment be improved?

Practice: Analyze the following two Experimental Examples to critique for good Experimental Design Experiment 2.Is your supermarket’s own brand of wash powder as good as a nationally-advertised brand? Read the information on Mr. Triton’s experiment and answer the following questions. 1.What do you think were the flaws Mrs. Triton could have detected? 2. How should Mr. Triton have conducted his experiment so that the data would be valid?

TOPICMAIN IDEAS/DETAILS Experimental Design Variables Any factor in an experiment that can be changed. Independent Variable - a factor which is purposefully changed by the scientists. Dependent Variable - the factor in an experiment that is measured; changes in response to the independent variable. Constants - factors within an experiment that remain the same or are kept the same from trial group to trial group. Data – information, both qualitative and quantitative, that is gathered during an experiment. Qualitative - data that expresses a description or characteristic.

TOPICMAIN IDEAS/DETAILS Experimental Design Data – continued Quantitative - data that is expressed by a number.