Temperature Loggers: A Hot Technology for Gathering Large Environmental Data Sets to Promote Students' Hypothesis Testing Abilities

 

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2012, Volume 33

Scott R. Smedley

Abstract

Temperature loggers can be used in various courses to test hypotheses. Here they were employed to help students develop quantitative skills in a non-majors winter ecology course. Within a forest, student teams each identified two microhabitats in close proximity (e.g., opposite sides of a large tree trunk). They next hypothesized whether or not the thermal environment would differ between the microhabitats. With temperature loggers recording at 0.5-hour intervals for over 75 days, the students amassed vast datasets to test their hypotheses. Prior to their analysis and presentation of the actual data, students participated in two instructional modules to sharpen their quantitative skills.

Keywords:  field studies, quantitative skill, temperature, hypothesis testing, non-majors biology, loggers, microhabitat

New Mexico State University (2011)