Need help studying

PART B LAB

Part B: The Scientific Method

The scientific method! 

I'm sure you've had some version of this in every science class since... kindergarten? Hopefully this isn't new, but let's review anyways by watching this video:

 HERE IS THE LINK :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nAETHZTObk

Practicing with the scientific method

 

Part 1:

In 1887 a strange nerve disease attacked the people in the Dutch East Indies. The disease was beriberi. Symptoms of the disease included weakness and loss of appetite; victims often died of heart failure. Scientists thought the disease might be caused by bacteria. They injected chickens with bacteria from the blood of patients with beriberi. The injected chickens became sick. However, so did a group of chickens that were not injected with bacteria. One of the scientists, Dr. Eijkman, noticed something. Before the experiment, all the chickens had eaten whole-grain rice, but during the experiment, the chickens were fed polished rice. Dr. Eijkman researched this interesting case and found that polished rice lacked thiamine, a vitamin necessary for good health.

 

    1.State the Problem

 

   2.What was the hypothesis?

 

3. How was the hypothesis tested?

 

4. Do the results indicate that the hypothesis should be rejected?

 

5. What should the new hypothesis be and how would you test it?

 

Part 2

 

Bart believes that mice exposed to radio waves will become extra strong (maybe he's been reading too much Radioactive Man). He decides to perform this experiment by placing 10 mice near a radio for 5 hours. He compared these 10 mice to another 10 mice that had been exposed. His test consisted of a heavy block of wood that blocked the mouse food. He found that 8 out of 10 of the exposed mice were able to push the block away, while 7 out of 10 of the other mice were able to do the same. 

· Identify the:

· Control group

· Independent variable           

· Dependent variable

· What should Bart's conclusion be?

 

· How can the experiment the experiment be improved?

 

 

 (Adapted from http://www.biologycorner.com/)

 

Scientists are Skeptics

While the scientific method is a powerful to help us collect information about the known world, it is important that scientists (including you!) remain skeptical. But what does this mean? Let's watch this video to take a look at what skepticism is:

HERE IS THE VIDEO LINK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9IoN8Tb1wg

Let's think about it

Answer these questions in your notebook:

1. Why is skepticism considered a valuable trait for scientists?

2. Can science ever prove something completely true? Explain. 

 

Reproducibility and Repeatability

Repeatability means being able to obtain the same results, with the same experimental set up, time after time. Being able to reproduce the results of an experiments enables researchers to claim that their results are valid, and not just a chance event (like a freak accident).

The reproducibility means that researchers in other labs can obtain the same results, using the same methods as published in a paper. This shows that the published results are not just artifacts of the unique setup in one research lab. Reproducibility is desirable, because it verifies and protects against rare cases of fraud or human error, in the production of significant results.

For this section, we'll watch this video and answer some questions:

HERE IS THE VIDEO LINK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpCrY7x5nEE

Answer these questions in word document

1. What unexpected event did CERN researchers ultimately track down due to an experimental error?

2. What does the phrase “Publish or Perish” refer to?

3. What is “Peer Review”?

4. What are some potential remedies for the lack of irreproducibility?

5. What steps does a scientist take in order to share her results with scientific community?

6. List one pressure that each of the following parties might feel that could discourage them from looking more closely at preventing irreproducible results. a) Researchers b) Universities c) Scientific Journals