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Home » Educator Resources » Online Courses » Let’s Experiment » Let’s Experiment : Assessment Questions

Let’s Experiment : Assessment Questions

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Module ID Question
Module 0: (Introduction)
Module 1: An Introduction to Experimental Design
Q1 In 2-3 sentences, describe an experiment you plan to do (or are currently doing), and would like to use as the basis for the assessments in this course. If you aren’t at the point of doing an experiment, it could be one you’ve already done, one of the featured case studies, or one from your favorite publication.
Q2 What’s the research question you’re trying to address?
Q3 Do you have a hypothesis(es)? If so, what is it/are they?
Q4 How does this experiment (from Q1) address your question/hypothesis? What are the expected outcomes?
Q5 Why are you doing this experiment? Where does it fall on the “prioritization of experiments” flow chart?
Q6 What’s the model system you plan to use and why? (e.g., Is the model system readily available in lab? Is it amenable to the technique you wish to apply and/or to the subject you wish to study? Is it appropriately generalizable to your subject of interest?) What are the strengths and weaknesses of the model system given your research question and experimental setup?
Module 2: Key Elements of Experimental Design
Q7 List the variables in your experiment and identify which ones are independent, dependent, and controlled. a. Independent variables: b Dependent variables: c. Controlled variables:
Q8 What could be confounding variables in your experiment, and how might you handle them (e.g., control them, randomize samples, etc.)?
Q9 Describe the controls you plan to include in your experiment?
Q10 How will the controls you listed above help you analyze and interpret your experiment? Are they addressing any confounding variables?
Q11 Do you have any internal controls in your experiment? If so, please explain them. If not, justify why they are not practical or necessary for your experiment.
Q12 List all of the sources of random variation (biological and technical) that you can think of that may interfere with your ability to observe the true effect you are trying to measure in your experiment.
Q13 How are you going to use replicates to address/account for sources of random variation?
– What are your biological replicates?
– What are your technical replicates?
Q14 What’s your plan for repeating the experiment? How many times will you repeat it, assuming it works consistently? Will you use the same or different reagents? Will you do it on a different day or week? What strategies will you employ to ensure you aren’t introducing confounding variables between repeat experiments?
Q15 How will/did you estimate the sample size you will use (i.e., how many biological replicates?) and why? Will/Did you rely on literature, or perform pilot experiments? Whom will you consult for help?
Module 3: Account for Bias
Q16 Describe in 3-5 sentences how rigor and transparency will be incorporated into the experimental design of your experiment.
Q17 For your planned experiment(s), what hypothesis or experimental outcome are you particularly excited about and/or invested in?
Q18 How do you see this as potentially biasing how you design and carry out your experiment?
Q19 How is the experiment designed in a way that will “disprove” your hypothesis? What choices have you made in the design of the experiment to account for the possibility that other explanations or hypotheses are “true”?
Q20 Regarding your own project or set of experiments, how can you ensure you are getting representative sampling and that you are treating your samples or groups equally?
Q21 For the experiment, what measurement bias might exist? What will you do to remove the bias in how you take measurements? Will you try blinding?
Q22 For your experiment, what type of measurements will you make?
Q23 What type of data do you expect to have (e.g., categorical, continuous)?
Q24 If your data type is qualitative, how will you analyze it?
Q25 If your data type is quantitative, what type of statistical test are you considering to use and why?
Q26 Identify a statistician or statistics expert whom you will consult for your experimental design and list their name here.
Module 4: Gear Up to Do the Experiment
Q27 Provide a link to your experimental protocol (or otherwise identify it). After reviewing it, do you have any questions? Concerns?
Q28 Have you plotted this experiment over the number hours, days, weeks? Approximately, how long will it take in total to complete?
Q29 What reagents do you need to acquire or prepare before you start the experiment?
Q30 Include a list of key reagents and materials.
Q31 Identify which ones need to be validated or authenticated.
Q32 How are they going to be validated or authenticated? What methods will you employ to test whether the reagents work and/or are what you think they are?
Q33 Open up your lab notebook to a random day in the past (say 6 months, if it goes back that far). Read over what you have written. If you had to redo that day’s experiment using only what is written in your lab notebook, could you? Are there things you wish you had included? What would you change about your recordkeeping now that you have thought about it?
Q34 Find out your institutional and lab guidelines for record keeping and record them here. Are you adhering to those guidelines?
Q35 Take a recent experiment you have done and write up the experiment (in your notebook or elsewhere) using Neil’s notebook model. Is this how you normally do your notebook? What do you think about Neil’s process? Will you change how you keep your records after seeing this model?
Module 5: Getting the Experiment to Work
Q36 Are you going to pilot this experiment? Why or why not? If so, how are you going to break this down into a smaller scale, more manageable experiment? What will the pilot look like?
Q37 When someone says, “I got my experiment to work,” what does that mean to you? Please don’t jump ahead to the next section to get the answer. Just write out the first thing that comes to mind. This question is just to get you thinking ahead of the next unit.
Q38 What do you anticipate will be the challenges in getting your experiment to work and how might you address them? (Or are you already troubleshooting? If so, how are you approaching your experimental difficulties?)
Q39 In an experiment you are doing now, list all of the sources of variation that you can think of that may interfere with your ability to observe a true effect from factors of interest.
Q40 For these sources of noise, what can you do (or what did you do) to minimize the noise?
Q41 What conditions might you need to optimize and how might you optimize them?
Q42 Let’s consider the possibility that your experiment works consistently as expected after several repeat experiments. What are you going to do next? What new experiments, new questions, or approaches are you going to do?

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences under Grant No. 2122350 and 1 R25 GM139147. Any opinion, finding, conclusion, or recommendation expressed in these videos are solely those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent the views of the Science Communication Lab/iBiology, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, or other Science Communication Lab funders.

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