Properties of quality of research: Based on work of others Based on logical rationale and related to theory Consistent when replicated

Is feasible Can be generalized to other situations Generates new questions Incremental Apolitical and helps to better society

The scientific method: an example Identify important factors (complete a literature review background research) 1. Type of bacteria & antibiotic 2. Culture.

What are good factors to investigate? New topic for investigation Relates to understanding of the original question Possible to investigate Interests investigator, personally or professionally Leads to more questions.

Hypothesis: An opinionated, educated guess about original question to be tested. If I add antibiotics daily to bacteria culture, the bacteria will become resistant by 3rd day.

Collect information: Collect data by doing experiments, or looking up info regarding amount of antibiotics that are needed to make bacteria resistant. What other experiments have been or can be done?

Test Hypothesis: Apply statistical tests to the data collected to determine if results are merely due to chance.

Examine results: Determine if data support or contradict the hypothesis. Bacteria became resistant by 4th day.

Reconsider (conclusion)

Maybe the aount of antibiotics was not enough to make it resistant when we thought it would be (3rd day) either use another type of antibiotic or use more of it.

New Questions: What will happen if I add twice as much antibiotics. Will bacteria die or become resistant by 3rd day? If I change the type of antibiotic could I have better results?

Importance Word variable has several synonyms. Here we will take it as a noun. Identifying and writing proper variables is basic to scientific method. Types of variables: Independent: researcher changes it. (amount of antibiotic) Dependent: what the outcome is. (bacteria becoming resistant or not) Constants: variables the researcher keeps the same between all the trials because they may confound results. Control group: same experiment, without the independent variable.

Good variables: Measure a quality or quantity Plant growth in centimeters Weight of hersheys chocolate bar Type of car Salary Flower preference

Non-experimental research: Descriptive: a. Describes one variable of a current phenomenom. b. Does not explain why, how, what, or when of what caused the phenomenom. Field: a. Investigation takes place in natural environment, direct observation or survey questions. b. Scientists studying the behavior of elephants in natural habitat. Historical: a. Describe events occurred in past and relates to current situations. b. Ex: studying causes that lead to Mexican Revolution.

Correlational: a. Studies the relationship between 2 variables. b. Ex: relationship between number of hours of tv and school grades. Qualitative: a. Researches look at human behavior and the social, cultural and political context in which the phenomenom occurs. b. Anthropology. c. Time frame: current or past. d. Uses case studies, ethnographies and surveys.

Experimental Research: True experimental: a. Tests for true cause and effect relationships. b. Researcher has complete control over the experiment, variables, etc. c. Usually takes place at a lab or at a hospital and usually involves animal trails. d. Example: test of drug efficiency on mice. Quasi experimental: a. Researcher does not have complete control over experiment. b. Ex: testing efficiency of a certain medicine on patients.

What is the difference between Science and Technology Research? Scientific research is defined as studies that add purely to basic knowledge without necessarily seeking a solution. Technological research is defined as research performed for improvements and modifications.

Steps of technological research: Determine necessities ex: iphone should have a mini version. Measure ranges: determine I think most young people would like to have one, make its price lower because buyers would be studying, not working. Verify past technical knowledge: learn about similar products, use examples from before. Develop possible solutions and select the most appropriate: think of all the ways to accomplish project, select the most feasible. Solution feasibility (technical and economical): confirm that all parts of plan work. Tests:build your technology and test it. Develop modifications and improvements: check what it needs and develop better one. Apply solutions: use the new one and try seeing how it is. Ethical impacts: must always be considered when using or developing new technology.

2nd Partial Graphs Pie Charts: always have legend next to it Bar Graphs a. Histogram: all in bars, one variable analyzed b. Bar Chats: 2 variables. Scatter Plot: different outcomes Always write units which measure and TITLE Line Graph Uniform Distribution: many bars, all almost same values Left skew, from low for a bit, then high, then low fast Right skew, get high fast, then low slow Bimodal/Multimodal Has many frequency in some, then almost none and again high frequency, 2 tendencies or more.

Measures Central Tendency Mean Average of a set of numbers Median The middle number of a set of numbers. 1. {2,5,7,3,5,9,1,5} 2. Change to have order {1,2,3,5,5,5,7,9} 3. Check middle number {5,5} if more than 1 get average 4. 5 = median Mode: most repeated number.

Measure of Variability Variability how spread out the data is from your mean. 1. Greater means more data is away from mean. 2. Less, less data is away from mean. Range: difference between largest and smallest number in a set. Variance measure of how far the data is spread from the mean. Use formula:
( )

Standard Deviation = square root of our variance= s^2 = s

The Z Score: tells us how many standard deviations the raw score is away from the mean. Type of ranking sysm Standart score If negative, it means below the mean Positive means above the mean

The one we chose, minus the mean, divided by the standard deviation.

Pearsons correlational coefficient

if we have (n=3) 3(9*95+2*68+6*89) (9+2+6) (95+68+89) ( ( ) ( ) ) ( ( )( )

9 2 6 ) (

95 68 89 )