What does it take to be a successful squirrel?

On Tuesday we sampled various fruits to compare their taste between ripe and unripe fruits.  We also looked at how the structure of the fruit helps its seeds to disperse.

For homework you observed a squirrel for twenty minutes and recorded your observations.  Today in class we compared your observations and searched for patterns.  We generated a list of questions about squirrel behavior and from there developed a testable question.  While "Is there a difference between the mass of black squirrels and grey squirrels?" is a testable question, it is not one that WE could test.

The question that we asked was: Is there a difference between how close you can get to a black or grey squirrel before it runs.

We then developed a protocol to test this question and collected data.

Homework due Tuesday:

Export the the data from the google doc to an Excel spreadsheet, then:

1. Suggest ways that you could graph or present this data.

2. Identify two patterns that you see in the data

3. Identify two sources of natural variability in the data.  For each source of natural variability, explain how this could impact your data.

4. Identify two sources of experimental variability in the data.  For each source of experimental variability, explain how this could impact your data.

5. List three ways that this experiment could be improved in the future.