In Which We Relate The Scientific Method to Corn!

     Upon hearing the words 'scientific method' in school, I would finally feel confident and comfortable with an assignment. It was so easy to just punch in information to a box in a certain order. It was totally awesome.

     But then it all changed when this blog was assigned.

     The classic method did get one thing right- the epicenter of scientific theorizing is testing ideas with evidence.

     True evaluation of a scientific problem/question will never have a definite answer, it will always be open to further interpretation and change. Multiple testing could provide mew insight or raise new questions, not to mention webbing put into many other slightly unrelated theories and questions. Aside from the web that truly represents scientific study, why should it be a one man army attacking the endless possibilities? A full theory should be shared with fellow scientists as well. It's said that two heads are better than one, why not fifteen? Having other viewpoints allows a different way of thinking  or providing information you may have missed or possibly misinterpreted. Topics and processes thought experimentation often circle you back to the main problem you were first presented with.



     So with a small portion of understanding aside, why don't I explain how I got to test put my new understanding of the scientific method through virtual corn.



     In my virtual corn palace, I basically experimented with the effects of infestation on types of corn and its final kernel output.  The infestation is the independent variable because it is the thing that changes the outcome of each experiment (such as high infestation yeilds few kernels in Corn Type A, low infestation yeilds same amount through Corn Type B, which must be some pretty weak corn...) All other variables such as lighting, water, temperature and soil is assumed same, therefore constant, and truthfully just means those are things I can ignore because they (for this particular experiment) have no effect... so forget about those things. Now for a simplified layout, since my plans of having tables absolutely will not work with this program!

•  The Corn crop BT123 with low infestation:
• 1.  164.0 kernels
• 2.  162.6 kernels
• 3.  168.3 kernels
• The Corn crop Golden Crop Non-BT with low infestation:
• 1.  177.9 kernels
• 2.  171.2 kernels
• 3.  170.6 kernels

From this particular set I believe that BT123 is slightly weaker and is effected only slightly more by a low infestation of ECB.

•  The Corn crop Golden Crop Non-BT with high infestation:
• 1.  135.4 kernels
• 2.  139.6 kernels
• 3.  138.3 kernels 
• The Corn crop BT456 with high infestation:
• 1.  157.3 kernels
• 2.  157.0 kernels
• 3.  159.0 kernels

So, again the Golden crop comes out superior, yet this experiment can be redone a thousand different ways just by changing the infestation amount from none to high with several different crops at different rates (i.e. Golden crop at high infestation vs. BT456 with no infestation). And then later you can change the constant variable to test the effect on corn when the soil, water, or light is altered. Isn't corn fun?





Sources:

• http://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/0_0_0/howscienceworks_01
• http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/virtual_labs/BL_01/BL_01.html
• http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/jullian-smith?before=1338529559