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This introductory course defines biology and its relationship to other sciences. We examine
the overarching theories of life from biological research and also explore the fundamental
concepts and principles of the study of living organisms and their interaction with the
environment. We will examine how life is organized into hierarchical levels; how living
organisms use and produce energy; how life grows, develops, and reproduces; how life
responds to the environment to maintain internal stability; and how life evolves and adapts
to the environment.
This course is a part of our Community College (CC-OLI) series. Courses in this series are
particularly well-suited to the needs of introductory community college courses, but are
open for use by any instructor or student.
Branches of biology:
Fields dealing with animals:
Comparative anatomy (pronunciation) The scientific study of similarities
and differences in the bodily structures of distinct types of animals.
Entomology (pronunciation) The study of insects.
Medicine The art and study of the prevention, cure, and alleviation of
disease, and the care of the injured.
Vocabulary
Hypothesis - a working assumption, a possible cause, an educated guess, a tentative answer to some question.
Contains only a statement of possible fact.
Prediction what you expect to be true if your hypothesis is correct, formed as an if-then statement.
Dependent variable in an experiment, the variable that will be measured or observed in response to the
experimental conditions.
Independent variable in an experiment, the variable that you will manipulate.
Control in an experiment, the control group is a treated exactly the same as your manipulated group except that
the manipulation is not performed
A hypothesis must be testable. If your explanation (hypothesis) includes variables that are difficult to
quantify or measure, you will not be able to test your hypothesis.
A hypothesis must be falsifiable. This means that you have to be able to disprove your hypothesis. In
fact, when we test a hypothesis, we cannot conclude that our hypothesis is true; all we can conclude
after our test is that our hypothesis is supported or wrong.
Restrict the hypotheses that you test to the educated guesses. While any testable, falsifiable
hypothesis can be used in the scientific method, some may seem highly unlikely as explanations right from
the beginning. You will save time if you start testing those that seem plausible given what you already
know about the natural world and the system you are observing.
Proposing a hypothesis can be the most imaginative and insightful step of the scientific method.
Sometimes the best explanation of your observations is not obvious. Think how long it took scientists to
hypothesize that kids resemble their parents because information is encoded in genes in every cell!
3) If competition from other radish plants limits a plants growth, then a radish grown next to other radishes
will grow less than an isolated radish.
Step 4: Testing your hypothesis
Tests of your hypothesis can include:
1) Further observation
For example, if your hypothesis were Birds sing to attract mates, then you may make further
observations on the timing of singing in birds. Your prediction may be If my hypothesis is true, then birds
will sing mostly during the beginning of the breeding season, and singing during other times of the year
will be non-existent or greatly reduced
2) Synthesis of data
For example, if your hypothesis were The decline of the sea otter along Pacific shores has previously
been and still is largely due to human hunting, then you may look at historical records of sea otter
distribution and abundance as well as fur trade records. Your predictions may be If my hypothesis is
true, then the initial decline in sea otter abundance should coincide temporally with the beginning of
human hunting of otters and fur trade. If my hypothesis is true, then the declines would be heaviest in
the most heavily hunted regions.
3) Experiments:
Experiments are one of the most often used and frequently the best tests of you
hypothesis. When designing an experiment, you want to think about the appropriate
procedures, variables and controls. Here, well use as an example the hypothesis
Light availability affects the growth of radish plants.
Variables are the defined, measurable factors that may be important for your
hypothesis. The dependent variable is the factor that you want to question and
measure the response of in your test. The independent variable is the variable you
are manipulating in the test. Other variables that may affect your dependent variable
should be controlled variables they should be identical for all groups. By controlling
all other variables, we can ask whether it is the independent variable specifically
which leads to a response in the dependent variable.
For our example,
What is the dependent variable?
Plant growth
What is the independent variable?
Light
What are the controlled variables?
When you test your hypothesis, you may find that the hypothesis is not supported, or
you may make additional observations that lead you to modify your hypothesis. This
iterative nature is one of the keys to success when applying the scientific method.
You may also want to test several related hypotheses. For example, if your tests
support the hypothesis that light affects growth in radish, you may want to expand
your examination of plant growth by testing the other hypotheses we proposed. You
may also test for interactions of variables (eg maybe light only affects growth when
the plants have more than adequate water, but in water limitation, light has no
effect on growth).
For more on observations, hypotheses, and predictions: