Scientific Method

1. What was the hypothesis of this experiment? (Reminder: Hypothesis is a statement.) What question(s) was (were) the investigator asking? This should be one or two sentences at the most.

If a group of mice drinks diluted coffee instead of water then the glucose concentration in their blood would decrease by 30 percent.

2. Which is the control group? Why? This should be one or two sentences at the most.

The control group is the group of mice that were given water. As we know the control group is the group that is not changed in any way. The control group provides a standard of comparison for the treatment group.

3. Which is the treatment group? Why? This should be one or two sentences at the most.

The treatment group is the group of mice that was given diluted coffee. This group was modified i.e. given coffee instead of water.

4. Did the researchers follow the scientific method in their experimental design? Explain.

This should be about one paragraph explaining your rationale.

The scientific method starts with a question about something that can be observed. And, in order for the scientific method to answer the question it must be about something that can be measured, preferably with a number. In this case I suppose the question was: “Can coffee decrease the blood glucose concentrations in mice?” Next the hypothesis was made and tested during the experiment; the data was gathered and analyzed, and finally the conclusion was drawn. All the steps of the scientific method are in place.

5. Do you think that there may be any possible biases or other problems in this experiment? Explain. Do you think the investigators could have been influenced by other factors?

Possible biases: we don’t know the sex of the mice. If one group contained only males and the second only females the results could have been different. Same can be applied to the age of the mice. Younger mice could have been more affected by coffee than older mice.

6. Based...