Tackling Experimental Design Concepts with Rubber Bands

 

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2013, Volume 34

Boriana Marintcheva

Abstract

Understanding the principles of experimental design is pivotal for studying and doing science. Teaching undergraduates how to design experiments is a challenging task especially in freshmen and sophomore courses. Often students are taught how to do so at the crossroads of new biological content, new hands-on skills and introduction to scientific equipment. As a result their efforts typically focus on the technical aspects of the experiments rather than on the process of scientific inquiry itself. The exercise described here introduces key concepts of experimental design using rubber bands and can be easily executed on any level of instruction

Keywords:  scientific method, experimental design

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2012)