Scientific Method
Scenario:
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.
1. It is possible that the student could be up working late hours at a job.
2. Test:
A.) I would test my hypothesis by scheduling earlier hours for the student to work.
B.) If the student was able to stay awake during class, my test would support my hypothesis.
C.) The student falling asleep in class would falsify my hypothesis.
3. An example of an untestable explanation would be that there is an on and off switch in the students brain that someone switches off to make him sleep every time a lecture begins.
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.
1. It is possible that the student could be up working late hours at a job.
2. Test:
A.) I would test my hypothesis by scheduling earlier hours for the student to work.
B.) If the student was able to stay awake during class, my test would support my hypothesis.
C.) The student falling asleep in class would falsify my hypothesis.
3. An example of an untestable explanation would be that there is an on and off switch in the students brain that someone switches off to make him sleep every time a lecture begins.
Hello,
ReplyDeletethe hypothesis you made is very interesting, and the test for your hypothesis are also satisfy, however, in my opinion if the hypothesis is work late hours at a job, your test could be stop work for one night or something.
hope this helps.
thanks
Melanie,
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job with the hypothesis and I think that it is reasonable.
As for the test, you could possibly get in contact with the student's work manager and ask if he can set up earlier hours for him or simply just ask what his work shifts are like, because he might already be working early hours. However, if he does happen to have a late schedule and the manager agrees to scheduling him earlier and the sleeping during lectures stops then you hypothesis is supported.
I also absolutely love you untestable explanation! It makes me wonder if it is truly untestable though, what if there is some way we would test whether the boy does indeed have an on or off switch in his brain? Such as by conducting a brain scan. As the professor stated, it might be absurd but still possibly testable.
HI mp22,
ReplyDeleteIt would be a great solution if the student would change his hours to earlier hours giving him more time to sleep, which in turn he would stay awake in class.
Definitely untestable to check if he had an off an on button. Creative!
Testable Hypothesis (5/5) - Okay... but how would this logically lead to him falling asleep in class.
ReplyDeleteTest (5/5) - I'm going to allow this because you are directly tying this into the issue of work schedule. In real life, we would need to recognize that "late hours" actually means that he isn't getting enough sleep, which is the ultimate cause here. To test "lack of sleep", you need to change how much sleep he gets.
Support (5/5)
Falsify (5/5)
Untestable Hypothesis (8/10) - Okay, but I actually suspect this is falsifiable (not possible... falsifiable). Who is this "someone"? Are they real? Can we observe (in real time, via x-rays or MRI) that neither he nor the switch is real? 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. I can hypothesize that the student is a superhero and gets no sleep at night because he spends his nights flying around the city, fighting crime. Yes, ridiculous, but I can falsify this by just observing the student an noting that he doesn't leave his house at night. :-)