BLOG 27 - Experiment Graph. That is, interpret your hypothesis by making use of data

Figure 1: This graph shows the difference in high and low frequency of the sounds, and the varying tempos, volumes, and pitches. 

In conclusion, our hypothesis states that "the increase and decrease of tempo, pitch, and volume will induce or reduce stress on the heart, causing the heart rate and blood pressure to rise and fall." The graph shows that the results for tempo and pitch were about correct, but volume did not have much of an effect on the subjects. 

Blog 26

As of right now, things are going pretty smoothly with our experiment. We have gotten the results for everyone in our group, which is good. One thing that our group discovered is that this experiment is not as simple to run as we thought it would be because there are so many tests that it takes a long time to test one person. However, it is not something that is completely out of hand, and so far we have executed it quite smoothly. One example of things going well are the results of my heart rate and blood pressure. My starting heart rate was 64 bpm. That raised when the pitch was higher on all of the trials and lowered a bit when the pitch was softer.

Blog 25 - Hypothesis and Methods

Our hypothesis is that if one increases the beats per minute (BPM) then the pitch and volume of the recording will cause the heart to become stressed, leading to a rise in one's heart rate and blood pressure.

Methods: 
First, headphones will be placed on the subject. The first set of beeps will be very slow with a high pitch and volume. After listening to the first set, we will measure their heart rate and blood pressure with an arm pump. The subject will then rest for three minutes in order for their heart rate to go back to normal. The second set of beeps will be very slow again but with a low volume and pitch. Again we will measure, and record their data and the subject will rest again for three minutes. The third set of beeps is very slow with a high pitch and low volume. Afterwards we will measure, and record data and the subject will rest. The fourth set will have a very slow BPM and a low pitch and a high volume. We will continue to measure the data and the subject will continue to rest for three minutes. The fifth set we do will have a very fast BPM with a high pitch and volume. The sixth will have a fast BPM with a low pitch and low volume. The seventh set we test will have a fast BPM with a high pitch and low volume. The eighth set will have a fast BPM also but will have a low pitch and a high volume. After each test we will measure the data with the arm cuff, then we will record the data and the subject will rest for three minutes. After all of this, we will compare our data to see if our hypothesis proves to be correct.

Blog 24 - Experiment Brainstorm

One idea that our group brainstormed for an experiment was to test how removing a certain food group from one's diet might effect one's strength. We were thinking that if we did this, 3 sets of 2 members of the group would remove a certain thing from their diet, such as dairy, gluten, or sugar. We would do a series of strength tests at the beginning to get each members overall strength and then we would do a series of strength tests again after 1 week and again after 2 weeks. Our hypothesis would go something like this - the strength of each person would go up as long as the person maintained a stable diet. 

Blog 23 - Experiment Assessment

1. What was your favorite part of the experiment?

          My favorite part of the experiment was doing the setup for it. I enjoyed the process of melting down the agar, pouring it into each dish, waiting for it to dry, and then adding the E. Coli, or in our case, Bacillus Cereus. I just thought that the process was a lot of fun, even though a few mistakes were made along the way. 

2. What did you find challenging?

          What was most challenging for me was making sure that all the little pieces that fit into our experiment came together. What I mean by that is, there were so many different things that we had to keep track of, such as getting the process of adding the bacteria to the agar just right, to questioning whether or not the apples would actually show a change in decomposition rate. All these little things that we had to sort out got a little jumbled together throughout the whole experiment process but it all came together, one way or another, in the end. 

3. What could you have personally done to improve your work?

          I think that I could have personally been more focused on making sure that everything came together. There were a lot of questions that arose throughout the whole experiment process that led to a bit of a sense of confusion about what needed to be done and when. 

4. Is there anything about your experience that I should be aware of? 

          I'm just glad that despite all of the errors made along the way that our results reflect what we assumed in our hypothesis! 

BLOG 22 - Experimental Error

As far as experimental error goes in our experiment, there is a lot that seemed to go wrong along the way. First off, we didn't even end up using E. Coli in our experiment. This was a mistake that we realized we had made after we added Bacillus Cereus to our petri dishes of apple in the beginning. We had not done any research on this bacteria and we did not know if it's effect on the apples would be the same as E. Coli on them. We took a big leap and decided to go with it because all of our plates had already been prepared when we added it and it would have taken at least another 2-3 days of work to fix our mistake, which we did not have time to do. Second of all, a couple of control group petri dishes that we filled with agar before beginning our control group experiment were contaminated with some unknown, outside bacteria. White patches of bacteria appeared in the dishes before any kind of bacteria had even been added. This could have meant that the earlier dishes that contained our apples could have been contaminated as well without our knowing. Also, when measuring the weights of our apples, it is possible that not all of the dried agar was removed from the apple slices which could have effected the numbers that we got in the end. 

Blog 21 - Research Significance

Our group is testing how rapidly apples decompose based on their sugar content when E. Coli bacteria is added to the mix. This is significant because, if our experiment proves that a higher sugar content leads to faster decomposition when sugar-enjoying bacteria are added, then it could be used in things such as dumps. If sugar was added to natural garbage, then the decomposition rate would be much faster and therefore save us a lot of time and space. Our experiment relates to taphonomy, which is the scientific study of decomposition. Applied activities that relate to our group's work so far are just experiments involving decomposition in general.

In fact, here is an experiment design quite like ours but it doesn't use E. Coli.

http://www.sciencefairadventure.com/ProjectDetail.aspx?ProjectID=133