Scientific methods

Topic: Scientific methods Order Description Length: 2000 words (plus or minus 10%) Word (or similar) digital document. Your document will be formatted using 1.5 line spacing. You need to include the ECU Cover Sheet at the start of your submission. Due Date ? Week 6 – Tuesday 29 March 2015 ? How to Submit Electronically via Blackboard > Assessment 1: Essay folder ? Learning Outcomes • Understand the importance of precision and accuracy in data collection. • Understand the scientific principles underlying atoms and particles, thermodynamics and heat, the behaviour of waves, radiation, vibration and noise. Topic Scientific methods ? Instructions Part 1 (10 marks) Using OHS examples describe the differences between; precision accuracy variability reliability and validity (word count 1000 max) Part 2 (15 marks) The scientific method is a logical and rational way of investigation that helps us to organise our thoughts and procedures and generally we can identify 7 specific steps in this process, these are: 1. Observation 2. Asking a critical question 3. Developing a hypothesis 4. Making a prediction that can be tested 5. Performing experiments to test the prediction 6. Data collecting and analysis 7. Making a logical conclusion based on experimental results Task: You observe that workers in a large open plan office environment tend to complain of headaches by mid-morning, particularly towards the end of the working week and the absenteeism rate amongst this group is much higher that among other employees. Describe how you would use the “7 steps” to investigate this issue. Grammar and referencing (5 marks) ? Marking Criteria Please refer to Blackboard > Assessment > Assessment 1 Marking Guidelines/Rubric ? Feedback ? Feedback will be available via Blackboard > My Grades.