Web-Enhanced Activity #1: Scientific Method Online Assignment (30 points)

Part I: Review the worksheet on BB titled Lab 1_Scientific Investigation Lab. After reading the
document, list and describe the parts of scientific method and describe, in your own words,
what the purpose of the scientific method is (10 points).
- (Define) the Purpose: A question or Reason on why this experiment is being done.
- (Research could be needed based off the experiment, but for the Milk Lab it wasn’t
needed)
- (Questions: Ask questions that’ll help further your testing)
- Create a Hypothesis: Form an educated guess or prediction on what the results of the
experiment would look like/ be.
- Test Hypothesis/ Collect Data: Create an experiment to test the hypothesis which
includes an independent and dependent variable (the independent variable is what
changes throughout the test and the dependent is what gets effected). Collect/ record
all the data you get in an organized format (graph, chart, etc.)
- Analyze Data: Once the data is all collected, you try to make sense of it (sometimes you
need to use math or calculations to really understand the data given) and see if it agrees
or disagrees with the hypothesis
- Conclusion: End the experiment by noting if the experiment agreed or refuted the
hypothesis (usually you should add a couple sentences on why it did/ didn’t).

Part II: It is important to know that the scientific method is not restricted to the laboratory or
classroom. You actually use it all the time in your everyday life. Describe (3) instances where
you have used the scientific method before in your everyday life. Be sure to mention all the
steps of the scientific method when describing each scenario (10 points).
1.
- Purpose: My iPhone charger isn’t charging my phone
- Hypothesis: Something is wrong with my charger
- Test Hypothesis: First I plugged the charger out and into a different outlet to see if it
could be the outlet, but it wasn’t. Then I brought a different charger and plugged it into
the same outlet to see if it’ll work and it did
- Analyze Data: I’ve realized that it was my charger which wasn’t working and not the
outlet at fault.
- Conclusion: The experiment agreed with my hypothesis that there was something
wrong with my charger.
 2.
- Purpose: I can’t find my keys
- Hypothesis: Did I leave my keys upstairs in my room?
- Test Hypothesis: I go upstairs into my room and look for my keys everywhere (on the
bed, floor, on my desk, etc.) and couldn’t find them. I go back downstairs and end up
finding it on the shoe rack.
- Analyze Data: I found out that my keys weren’t upstairs but instead, downstairs on the
shoe rack.
- Conclusion: After finding my keys downstairs, my hypothesis was refuted as my keys
weren’t upstairs in my room.

3.
- Purpose: My computers wifi isn’t connecting no matter if I put the password for the wifi
or not
- Hypothesis: If I restart the computer then maybe the wifi will connect
- Test Hypothesis: Before I restart the computer, I disconnect and reconnect to the wifi
(again) but it still doesn’t work. I restart my computer then connect to the wifi and it
finally works
- Analyze Data: Realizing that it must have been some sort of glitch which is why it
wouldn’t connect. By restarting the computer, it finally worked again.
- Conclusion: In conclusion, by restarting the computer and fixing the problem, it agreed
with my hypothesis that I needed to restart it to get it to connect to the wifi.

Part III: For some of you BIO 113L may be your first college science course as a science major.
Some of you may be non-science majors and taking the class as an elective. Others may be
transfer students with some college experience. Provide a brief description of the last science
course you took, when you took the course, and how the scientific method played a role in that
course (10 points).
- The last science course I’ve taken was AP BIO in high school. This course involved,
gaining knowledge about a topic and following it up with a lab/ experiment. For
example, when we learned about the Interactions among living systems, a lab which we
conducted with this topic was the Fruit Fly Behavior Lab to see what environmental
factions trigger a fruit fly response (this way of learning helped us understand the topic
much more than just reading and/ or memorizing.).
- I took AP BIO last year, my senior year of High School
- In the AP BIO course, we used the Scientific Method for every Lab we conducted. The
Purpose was always given to us but, we’d come up with the hypothesis, collecting data
from the experiment, Analyzing and understanding the data, and concluding the
experiment with a few sentences on why the experiment accepted or rejected the
hypothesis. We’ve even worked with the Null Hypothesis (but only once as it wasn’t
going to be put on the exam.). The Scientific Method played a big role in the course,
since our teacher always emphasized the importance of it and how it’s used in
everything a scientist does.