Dear Colleagues, I am writing some homework questions on experimental design for my students. Since paranormal trends are common in literature and movies lately, I thought it might be amusing to use some paranormal experiments in my homework assignments.
I realize this may cause some to shudder, not in fear of what goes bump in the night, but because hypotheses should be falsifiable and (as far as I know), vampires and werewolves do not exist. However, it might help students (especially gen ed students) to connect to science if they see that the scientific method can be applied to many different situations. =) 1. If you have any suggestions for experiments, please contact me. My office windows do not open, so you'll need to use email or post them to ECOLOG instead of sending an owl. Please make sure to include the question/topic, control, treatment, IV/DV, # replications, etc. Setting up the question so that it is not dependent on different “rules” (e.g., in some books, vampires can only drink human blood, in others they can also drink the blood of non-humans)- or at least so the rules are obvious in the experimental design- would be appreciated. 2. For example: A vampire researcher wants to determine if any particular human blood type lasts longer in his body than others, so the vampire would not need to feed as often. He gathers five humans of each of the following blood types: A, B, AB, and O and proceeds to snack on each, measuring the amount of time before he needs to feed again. Could you suggest a control for this experiment? 3. If anyone thinks this is totally inappropriate, it would be interesting to hear your reasoning. Thank you! Shelly
