Experimental Design Review

Vocabulary

100

Scientists collect evidence by making ___________.

What is observations?

200

Any data gathered by using only your senses. Example: Mrs. Krause has an Iowa State poster hanging on her wall.

What is an observation?

300

Developing a conclusion or forming an explanation based on evidence gathered with your senses. Example: Mrs. Krause has an Iowa State football poster so she is likely an Iowa State football fan.

What is an inference?

400

The range of the following set of data is ________. 3.2 m, 2.2 m, 7.8 m, 6.7 m, 1.4 m

What is 1.4 meters - 7.8 meters?

500

The average of the following set of data is _______. 3.2 m, 2.2 m, 7.8 m, 6.7 m, 1.4 m

What is 4.26 meters?

Variables

100

Marcus wants to find out how long it takes his baby brother to fall asleep. What are at least 2 variables that Marcus will have to attempt to keep constant?

What is both time of day and noise level?

200

Josh wonders which of his friends can run the fastest. He decides to have his friends run for 30 seconds and see who runs the farthest. What variable does Josh plan to keep constant?

What is time?

300

Josh wonders which of his friends can run the fastest. He decides to have his friends run for 3 seconds and see who runs the farthest. Which variable(s) is Josh planning to measure?

What is distance?

400

To keep variables constant means to:

What is.. keep all variables the same, except the one being tested?

500

Lydia is curious if sunlight is required for plants to grow. Lydia places 5 ivy plants near a window with full sunlight for 20 days and tests 5 ivy plants in a classroom with no windows for 20 days. Lydia measures the plant's heights before and after the 20 days. Lydia's control in her experiment is _________.

What are the plants near the window?

Data

100

Data that describes things or tell about the characteristics or qualities of things.

What is qualitative data?

200

Data that you can count or measure with numbers.

What is quantitative data?

300

List 3 pieces of quantitative data about one of your group members.

What is -12 years old? -5 feet 2 inches? -10 fingers?

400

List 3 pieces of qualitative data about one of your group members.

What is -color of clothing? -color of hair? -color of eyes? -size?

500

Drew doesn't like eating raw carrots. He decides to provide his parents with qualitative data to support his opinion. List two pieces of qualitative data the Drew could use to support his decision to not eat carrots.

What is -carrots taste bad? -carrots taste dry? -carrots are hard to chew? -carrots take a long time to peel?

Experimental Design

100

List a least 4 elements of a well designed experiement

one independent varaible

All variables kept constant except for the independent and dependent. 

Reproducible procedures

A control for comparision

200

Lydia is curious about how sunlight affects plant growth. Lydia places 5 ivy plants near a window with full sunlight for 20 days and 5 ivy plants in a classroom with no windows for 20 days. Lydia measures the plant's heights before and after the 20 days. What is the independent variable that Lydia is testing?

What is... the amount of sunlight?

300

Lydia is curious about how sunlight affects plant growth. Lydia places 5 ivy plants near a window with full sunlight for 20 days and 5 ivy plants in a classroom with no windows for 20 days. Lydia measures the plant's heights before and after the 20 days. What is the dependent variable?

What is... the height of the plants?

400

Lydia is curious about how sunlight affects plant growth. Lydia places 5 ivy plants near a window with full sunlight for 20 days and 5 ivy plants in a classroom with no windows for 20 days. Lydia measures the plant's heights before and after the 20 days. How could Lydia increase her sample size?

What is... increase the number of plants?

500

Lydia is curious about how sunlight affects plant growth. Lydia places 5 ivy plants near a window with full sunlight for 20 days and 5 ivy plants in a classroom with no windows for 20 days. Lydia measures the plant's heights before and after the 20 days. Write a hypothesis for Lydia's experiment in if/then/becuase form.

What is ... If a plant is placed in a room with no sunlight, then it will not grow as much as a plant placed near a window because plants require sunlight to create the energy required to grow. Hypothesis must be in if/then/because format.

Clinical Trials

100

Today, a clinical trial of a new medicine could include: a. informed consent b. use of a placebo c. large sample size d. all of the above

What is all of the above?

200

Number of Feel the Feel Feel of patients Same Better Worse Treatment Group 100 21 72 7 Control Group 100 77 31 2 How many people made up the sample size of people treated with medicine?

What is 100 patients?

300

Number of Feel the Feel Feel of patients Same Better Worse Treatment Group 100 21 72 7 Control Group 100 77 31 2 List the number of patients who experienced the placebo effect. Explain how you know.

What is 31 patients? We know this because they are people in the control group, who received the medicine and reported feeling better even though they didn't receive medicine.

400

Number of Feel the Feel Feel of patients Same Better Worse Treatment Group 100 21 72 7 Control Group 100 77 31 2 List the effectiveness of the medicine.

What is... the medicine is 72% effective in making patients feel better compared to the placebo that made 31% of patients feel better. The medicine is 41% more effective than the placebo.

500

Explain why scientists use placebos when testing medicine on humans.

What is scientists use placebos as the control of a clinical trial. The placebo allows scientists to compare the results of the patients that took the placebo to the patients that took the medicine. This comparison helps to prove that patients that got better after taking the medicine, got better as a result of the medicine and not some other variable/factor like the placebo effect.