1. Animal study
91601
Internal – 4 credits

2. Monday 12 March Overview of Animal study
SLO: Use existing scientific ideas to develop a ‘background’ on the organism being investigated (crabs). Recapping behaviour and adaptive advantages.
Develop a hypothesis based on current scientific understanding.
Re-cap behaviour /environmental stressors
Steps in carrying out a scientific investigation – overview, hypothesis and null hypothesis (slides 1-8)
Homework: Start developing ideas for your experiment/Start developing your hypothesis.

3. Wednesday 14 March Writing valid and repeatable methods
SLO: Establish a valid range for the independent and a valid measurement for the dependent variable.
Clearly stipulate how other variables will be controlled, allowing for sampling bias and sources of error.
Re-cap variables.
Examples/how to…
Crab experiments – work out which variables are dependent/independent, which need to be controlled.
What is ‘sampling bias’? What are ‘sources of error’ and how can each of these be controlled.
Homework: Start developing ideas for your experiment/Start developing your hypothesis.

4. Thursday 15 March Statistical analysis
SLO: Use statistical analysis to evaluate the reliability of the data.
Why use statistical tests in biological investigations?
The Chi-square test.
Use tables and graphs to summarise data and reveal trends (or absence thereof).
Evaluate graphs and make inferences about reliability.
Writing own method.

5. Friday 16 March Planning investigations
Overview of what needs to be done before leaving for the field trip/ milestones.
Develop and work on idea for investigation, hypothesis (milestone 1), and initial method (milestone 2).
Complete milestone 1 and 2 by end of lesson and get signed off in logbook.
Homework: Finish anything incomplete before field trip.