NYU Scientific Observation and Hypothesis Testing Essay

FCSC-101-M07Scientific Observation and Hypothesis Testing • Writing assignment
Due Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020
Name: _____________________________________________
One of the very important things that I’d like you to take from this class is the knowledge of how
science works, and the knowledge that you can do “scientific inquiry” in your everyday life. You’ll
find that this is a lot like CSI or Sherlock Holmes.
1. In the next week, I want you to make an observation that is related to some sort of process. It can
be about any process, but the key to a decent observation is to be able to ask “why is it like that?”
or “how does this happen?”
For instance, while sitting in the dentist chair yesterday I noticed a big curved scrape in the
drywall on the wall in front of the chair, about 2 feet long, ¼ inch deep. See the drawing
below.
Write your observation down using as much detail as possible so that your reader (the
professor) will understand what you have observed. You may include a picture or an
illustration (as depicted above), but this illustration/drawing may NOT serve as a substitution
for your written description.
Your observation may be about a social interaction that you observed (but not one that you
took part in), or it could be about a physical object (e.g., the example of the scrape in the wall
above).
2. Next, ask a question about your observation. This question will usually include the words “how” or
“why.”
• “How did that scrape get there?”
Write this question down. (If you have trouble forming a decent question, you might want to
consider a different observation).
3. Then, make at least two more observations that help you answer that question. Write these down.
• “There are no other marks on the wall.”
• “The part of the chair that sticks out the most is the elbow on the rotating arm the light
is attached to.”
• “The scrape is higher on the wall than any or part of the chair or other instrument in the
room, including the elbow of the light arm.”
• “There is some drywall stuck to the back side of the elbow of the light arm, and it has
some paint on it that is the same color as the paint on the wall” (I had to get up out of
the chair and look around to find this data)
4. Once you have made several observations that help answer your question, go ahead and try to
answer your question. The answer to your question is your hypothesis, and it should come in the
form of a statement. Then you should justify your statement with your observations.
• “The scrape on the wall happened when they moved the chair into the office and the
light arm rubbed against the wall. The evidence I see for this is the paint and drywall
stuck on the back of the elbow of the light arm, and that the light arm is not high
enough for this to happen while it is sitting in its current position. Also, it only
happened once because there is only one scrape. It must have happened when the chair
was higher than it is now, and that would be when people were moving it into the
office.”
5. Finally, make at least one additional hypothesis based on your conclusions that attempt in increase
your understanding of the process or the objects involved:
• “It must be difficult to move a dental chair into position”
• “These people really don’t care about what this place looks like since they haven’t
fixed or painted the wall, they haven’t even hung a picture over the scrape, and the crud
is still on the light arm.”
6. Write it up. You may use the bullet pointed format as I have here, but you should use formal
language and grammar.
Assessment criteria
Your submission will be assessed on the appropriateness of your observations (3 points), the logic you
used to answer your initial question (3 points), the quality of the hypotheses (3 points), and the overall
quality of your writing (1 point).