1. Suitability Test
Wednesday, 22 May 2019

2. You will plan and carry out:
A suitability test to decide the best procedure to identify coloured dyes in fruit drinks. You must present your findings in the form of a scientific report which assesses the suitability of the procedures that you have chosen.

3. Collect Secondary Data
Then use this to inform your experiments. You are marked for your ability to collect, process, analyse and interpret secondary data. Explain and describe: What tests can be used? Why would you choose these ones? Reference your sources.

4. Write a plan
Your plan should be detailed and use complex procedures. Your plan must include a full method to allow somebody else to be able to follow the instructions. You must say why you have chosen this method and why you have chosen your variables.

5. Planning and risk assessment
Write a full risk assessment that matches the procedure and minimises risk.
Use the student safety sheets and include risks from the apparatus and the chemicals you will use.

6. Measuring Rf values
For each repeat, measure the Rf value. Each test should be carried out 3 times. The Rf value should be measured at the top, middle and bottom. This gives you 3 figures from each test.

7. Collect and correctly record data to cover an appropriate range.
Record your results in a table
Include all units
Repeat your results to be able to calculate the mean.
Identify outliers – don’t include them in your results

8. Process, analyse and interpret primary data
Draw a graph:
Make sure that you use the correct units and scale.
Label your axes
Give it a title
Plot the means and draw range bars
Draw a line of best fit if it is appropriate (probably not).

9. Interpret your graph
Describe and interpret main trends and patterns in the data.
Are your ranges small? This shows that your results are accurate.
Do the ranges overlap or are they very different? What can this tell you about the validity of the results?

10. Write a conclusion
Can you now recommend the most suitable method? Remember what the purpose of the test was; can you link your results to the purpose of the test? How accurate was your experiment? Explain how you know this.

11. Evaluating
Discuss your overall method, quality of data, risks, quality of written work and scientific ideas. Did you vary the methods enough? Did you repeat the experiment? Was your data of good quality? How do you know? DON’T FORGET TO EVALUATE THE SAFETY – did anything go wrong? How did you feel the risks were managed?