BIO_SC 1010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Dependent And Independent Variables, Standard Deviation
Document Summary
Discovery science: uses observation and measurements to describe nature natural phenomena (weather, behavior, diseases) Data: recorded observations derived from things seen or measured (if you don"t have a record of your data, it doesn"t exist) Scienti c method -- a series of steps that can be applied to solve problems and answer questions -- observe, question, develop hypothesis, predict, test, conclude, communicate. Hypothesis: tentative answer to a question -- a proposed explanation for a set of observations (present tense) You can never fully prove a hypothesis, just support it. Once you"ve stated your hypothesis, you next make a prediction: what you expect to see as a result from the experiments you conduct. Predictions are if/then statements, talk about what will happen in the future (future tense) Experiments: carefully designed tests, will be able to support or rule out a hypothesis. Variables: anything that varies or is different among individuals. Independent variable: factor that is deliberately being changed.
