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Lab 2. The Scientific Method

The document outlines a lab exercise focused on the scientific method, emphasizing the importance of asking questions, forming hypotheses, and designing experiments. It includes a specific experiment involving terrestrial isopods to study their behavior in response to different substances, detailing the materials, procedure, and expected results. Additionally, it discusses controls, variables, and how to analyze data to draw conclusions.

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Kenia Alvarez
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
4 views

Lab 2. The Scientific Method

The document outlines a lab exercise focused on the scientific method, emphasizing the importance of asking questions, forming hypotheses, and designing experiments. It includes a specific experiment involving terrestrial isopods to study their behavior in response to different substances, detailing the materials, procedure, and expected results. Additionally, it discusses controls, variables, and how to analyze data to draw conclusions.

Uploaded by

Kenia Alvarez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Note: All your answers to questions must be in Red or other color (not

including blue) for easier grading. Points will be deducted if you do not
distinguish your answers.

Lab 2. Scientific Method


Objectives:
 Identify the importance of asking questions.
 Explain how the steps of the scientific method are used to answer
questions.
 Differentiated between observations, hypothesis, conclusions, and
theories.
 Develop a hypothesis based on observations.
 Design an experiment that can be repeated.
 Formulated a conclusion based on observation and experimentation.

Vocabulary:
 Scientific method
 Hypothesis
 Scientific theory
 Experiment
 Independent variable
 Dependent variable
 Control group
 Experimental group
 Scientific journal

Introduction:
The scientific method is central to the study of biology: it is a process of
acquiring and verifying information through experimentation. The general
steps of the scientific method are depicted in the figure below. The
hypothesis, or suggested explanation for the observation, is the basis for
setting up experiments. A good experimental design is essential to the
scientific method. A few keys to good experimental design include effective
use of controls, reproducibility, a large sample size, and multiple trials. In an
experiment, to determine that any changes that occur are due to
investigator manipulation only, there must be some basis for comparison.
A control group is necessary to establish this basis of comparison. There are
positive and negative controls. The positive control will give a positive result
for the test, while a negative control is shown to have no effect. Everything is
kept the same as the experimental group and in the control group except for
the independent variable. The experimental group is the actual group being
experimented upon. For example, in a drug trial, a group receives the drug
(the experimental group), and another group receives a placebo (the control
group). The drug itself is considered the independent variable, and any
change(s) that occurs because of the drug is considered the dependent
variable. To ensure that it is the drug causing the changes to the subject, all
other variables must be tightly controlled (such as diet, exercise, smoking,
etc.). These are referred to as controlled variables.
When designing experiments, we only want to test one variable at a time.
The control and experimental group should only have one different variable.
In designing experiments, it is also essential to have multiple trials. This will
allow the scientist to verify that their results are accurate and not just
random. Usually, three trials would be sufficient to conduct statistics such as
a T-test. After preforming the statistical analysis scientist can then “accept”
or “fail to reject” the null hypothesis.
H0: The null hypothesis: It is a statement of no difference between sample
means or proportions or no difference between a sample mean or proportion
and a population mean or proportion. In other words, the difference equals 0.
Ha: The alternative hypothesis: It is a claim about the population that is
contradictory to H0 and what we conclude when we reject H0.
Figure 1: Illustration of the scientific method.
Review the Scientific Method by watching the following video:
https://youtu.be/yi0hwFDQTSQ

Part 1: Animal Behavior Lab


Background Information:
Terrestrial isopods are land-dwelling crustaceans, commonly known as
sowbugs or pillbugs (or roly-poly's). They are related to lobsters, crabs, and
shrimp, and terrestrial isopods breathe with gills. While they look similar, sow
bugs are different from pill bugs. Pillbugs ( Armadillidum vulgare) will curl into a
ball when threatened, whereas sow bugs will attempt to flee. Land isopods
(including sow bugs and pill bugs) live in dark, moist places beneath
undisturbed objects lying on the ground -- rotting logs, boards, bricks, or
rocks. Sometimes isopods can be found alongside buildings with moisture
and food (decaying matter, fungi). In the lab, we provide them with potatoes
as a food source. Living organisms, in general, avoid some chemicals and are
attracted to others. This experiment will study the typical pillbug response to
being exposed to sand and cornstarch. Keep in mind that since you are
online, you are not ACTUALLY performing the experiment, instead
you will have to watch the video associated with this lab to answer
the questions.
Question: Which substance will attract or repel the isopods and why?
Hypothesis: (Write your own)
Materials:
 10 pill bugs in petri dish
 1 Choice-chamber
 Timer
 Sand
 Corn starch
 4 Weight boats
 Electronic balance
 Scoopula
 3 blank sheets of paper
 Pen/pencil and paper to record results
Procedure:
 Label a blank sheet of paper “Left” and “Right”. This will be placed
under the two sides of the choice chamber.
 After you have placed the chamber above the labeled blank sheet of
paper, you will place 10 pillbugs in the center of the choice chamber,
See Figure 2.

Figure 2: Illustration of the negative control chamber.


 Start your timer and record your results every 20 seconds for a total of
3 min. Keep in mind that if they are in the middle, you will count them
as undecided in Table 1.
 Do not stop the timer while taking records. You are encouraged to take
a picture at each interval for easier counting.
 Clear out the pillbugs, place them back in the petri dish.
 Label a new blank sheet of paper “Left Sand” and “Right Sand”. Place
the clean choice chamber above.
 Using your electronic balance and weigh boats, weigh two 2g of sand,
one for each side of the chamber.
 Place 2g of sand on each side of the chamber.
 Put the 10 pillbugs back in the center of the chamber, see Figure 3.

Figure 3: Illustration of the positive control chamber.


 Start your timer and record your results every 20 seconds for a total of
3 min in Table 2.
 Clear out the pillbugs, place them back in the petri dish.
 Label a new blank sheet of paper “Cornstarch” and “Sand”. Place the
clean choice chamber above.
 Using your electronic balance and weigh boats, weigh two 2g of sand
and 2g of cornstarch, one for each side of the chamber.
 Place the 2g of sand and cornstarch under their labeled side of the
chamber.
 Put the 10 pillbugs back in the center of the chamber, see Figure 4.

Figure 4: Illustration of the positive control chamber.


 Start your timer and record your results every 20 seconds for a total of
3 min in Table 3.
 Clean up according to instructor's directions.

Results: (Watch the Lab 2. Scientific Method video)


Table 1: Results of Negative Control Group
Left Right Middle:
Undecided
0 seconds
20
40
1 minute
20
40
2 minutes
20
40
3 minutes
Table 2: Results of Positive Control Group
Left: Right: Sand Middle:
Sand Undecided
0 seconds
20
40
1 minute
20
40
2 minutes
20
40
3 minutes

Table 3: Results of Experimental Group


Sand Cornstarch Middle:
Undecided
0 seconds
20
40
1 minute
20
40
2 minutes
20
40
3 minutes

Conclusion:
1. In this experiment why do we need a chamber with sand on both
sides? What is the purpose of sand?

2. What are the variables?

3. Was your hypothesis supported? Use the data to explain your answer.
4. Use what you know about organisms, cells, and homeostasis to explain
your results.

5. How could this experiment be improved? (Hint: How can we prove that
the results are accurate.)

6. Hypothetically speaking, if we had more pill bugs go to the right side in


both the control and experimental groups, how would this affect your
conclusion? Explain your answer.

Part 2: Identify the Controls and Variables:


Read the following scenario and answer the questions below.
Smithers thinks that a special juice will increase the productivity of workers.
He creates two groups of 50 workers each and assigns each group the same
task (in this case, they are supposed to staple a set of papers). Group A is
given the special juice to drink while they work. Group B is not given the
special juice. After an hour, Smithers counts how many stacks of papers each
group has made. Group A made 1,587 stacks; Group B made 2,113 stacks.
7. Which is the control group, how do you know this?

8. What is the independent variable?

9. What is the dependent variable?

10. What should the conclusion be?

11. How could this experiment be improved?

LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS

 " The Scientific Method" by Susan Burran and David DesRochers, LibreTexts is
licensed under CC BY-SA .
 "Investigation: Habitat Selection in Flour Beetles" by Shannan Muskopf, LibreTexts is
licensed under CC BY-NC-SA .
 Introductory Statistics by OpenStaxCollege is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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