Testing Hypothesis in the Winter World: A Semester-Long Temperature Monitoring Study For a Non-Majors Ecology Course

 

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2011, Volume 32

Scott R. Smedley

Abstract

One challenge in teaching non-majors biology courses is fostering the development of students' ability to think critically with quantitative material. This mini-workshop described one such endeavor, utilizing temperature loggers to collect field data with which students performed hypothesis testing. The workshop additionally provided participants with some hands-on experience with temperature loggers, a relatively inexpensive technology with broad application in the laboratory setting. Participants had the opportunity to analyze both temperature logger data that they collected during the workshop and an actual data set collected as part of the field study.

Keywords:  temperature, data analysis

Dalhousie University (2010)