Scientific Method Blog Post

 

About mid-way through the semester, in a class you are taking on campus, you become increasingly irritated by a student who sits in the back of the class.  The student always manages to fall asleep about 15 minutes into the lecture.  Normally it wouldn’t bother you, but occasionally he lets out a snore that breaks your attention and disrupts the class.  The instructor has repeatedly asked the student to work harder to stay awake, but he is not having any success.

For this activity, you are going to be using the scientific method to try and figure out why the student is falling asleep. 

  • Develop a testable hypothesis that might explain what is happening here. Why do you think the student is falling asleep in class? (5 pts)- It is possible that the student is falling asleep in class because of issues going on in their personal life as a breakup or stress from other classes keeping them up at night keeping him from being able to sleep soundly.
  • Your test: I would test this hypothesis by putting people in the class who are going through deep and various personal issues that may be keeping them awake while also putting new people who have not been in the class before at the same time. I am changing conditions by changing the group of people experiencing the class and the different places they are emotionally while taking the class class.
    • Predict results you would expect that would support your hypothesis? (5 pts)- If the students going through rough emotional turmoil fall asleep it would prove rough circumstances can keep you from effective sleep at home making you sleepy in a school setting as well if those new not going through anything stayed awake it would prove it is easier to sleep at home if you have less turmoil going on in ones personal life.
    • What results would falsify it? (5 pts)- If those going through turmoil stayed awake regardless and some not going through anything fell asleep it would suggest the hypothesis is not consistent in results. 
  • Identify an untestable explanation that would not be classified as a scientific hypothesis. (10 pts.)- An untestable explanation could be that the student is secretly a vampire who falls asleep during the day because they are awake all night.

    • Comments

    1. Sip SavvyJanuary 3, 2024 at 7:30 PM

      Hey Bella,
      It is all depending on the way the student sleeps the night before because that is a big factor that can impact the way they will act in class in general.

      ReplyDelete
    2. L RodriguezJanuary 4, 2024 at 2:36 PM

      Testable Hypothesis (5/5) - Okay, but this hypothesis is rather vague. It will be difficult to mechanize into a specific test without a bit more precision.

      Test (3/5) - The scenario describes a very specific behavior attributed to one specific student. The test must be applied to him directly to determine whether a causal relationship actually exists. Since people differ in behaviors and emotions and response to the stresses you describe, it isn't really possible to draw clear conclusions of causes of behavior for one person by examining a general group. While you are changing the conditions of the classroom and student body, you aren't changing the conditions of your hypothesized *cause* in order to see if it produces a predicted result.

      For example, if you want to hypothesize that his problems in class are perhaps due to mental health issues (just to summarize your statement), then what you need to change for this test is the student's *mental health*. Perhaps help him receive treatment from a psychiatrist or a therapist to help him address his issues, and then see if it changes his behavior in the classroom.

      Support (3/5) - I'm having trouble parsing out your prediction here with regard to this specific student. You are also appearing to have a secondary (or primary?) cause listed here of "effective sleep at home". So perhaps the primary causal factor is lack of sleep, which might be caused by emotional/mental health issues? In which case, what needs to be changed is the lack of sleep to test the hypothesis.

      But regardless of the changes you make, the result that would support any hypothesis would be the student NOT falling asleep in class. This will be the same for all hypothesized causes.

      Falsify (3/5) - Again, a bit confused as you refer to "staying awake" but isn't that what we *want* the student to do? Regardless of your hypothesis, the result that would falsify your test is if the student in question continued his behavior of falling asleep in class, i.e., there was no change in behavior.

      Untestable Hypothesis (7/10) - Can't we test if this student is a vampire?

      I recognize that vampires aren't real. :-) But that doesn't we can't test the hypothesis that the student is a vampire. Vampires in literature have a number of established physical traits (depending upon the story), including reacting badly to sunlight, not being visible in mirrors, having sharp canines (though some are the lateral incisors) for puncturing skin, etc. Can't we just examine the student for these traits (any of them) to confirm that the student is NOT a vampire?

      Keep in mind that "absurd" isn't the same thing as "untestable". Just because something is ridiculous doesn't mean it can't be falsified.

      ReplyDelete

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