Monday, September 22, 2008

Lab Report

Your lab report is due at the end of the week. In case you have any trouble with your HW tonight, I will give you an example of some experimental methods, to help you come up with your own.

Observation: Students like to have money in their pockets. Students don't get high test scores.

Problem: Students don't like studying for tests.

Hypothesis: If students are given $10 as a reward for good grades, then they will increase test grades.

Independent Variable: $10 reward for good grades
Dependent Variable: test grade

Experiment: Take ten students (group A - experimental group) out of the class and inform them that they will get $10 dollars i f their test grade goes up ten points or more for the next exam.

Take ten students (group B-control group) out of class and inform them that they will get personal satisfaction and pride if their test grade goes up ten points or more for the next exam.

Administer exam to the two groups of students.

Score exam, and record the results in a table/graph.

Conclusion: Based on the data results, confirm or reject your original hypothesis.

Further study: Maybe the students should not all come from the same class. If students feel it is unfair that they did not get $10, they might be angry and refuse to study for that reason. So make the sample of students more random. More students could be tested in more trials, to see whether the first trial had reliable results. So increase the number of trials.

Good luck, remember you can call me if you have problems.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

New Species of Shark!

This was just published recently about a very exciting discovery of a bunch of brand new, never discovered before, species of shark off the coast of Australia! I wish I would have discovered one, I would have named it Tiburus misnasia.......

Check it out: www.livescience.com/animals/080917-sharks-rays.html

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Unit 1 and beyond....

So far you have learned how scientists solve problems, make observations and inferences about the environment, design experiments, make accurate and precise measurements, record and present data, and make interesting conclusions. You also learned the seven traits of living things, and we thought a little about what biology really means.

So far so good! Our next step is to learn about the chemistry of life. Chemistry helps us understand a great deal of life processes. I recommend the Chemistry of Life link in the "Cool Links" list on the side of the page. Take a look around and play some of the virtual lab games. To receive extra credit, post a link on this blog to the website you visited, and write a brief description of what you did there, what parts you enjoyed and what parts were awful.

Have fun!