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LEARNING AS ONE NATION SY 2020-2021

Expanded Project Prac. Res. 2_Q1_6

SHS LEARNING ACTIVITY

Name: Score/Mark:
Grade and Section: Date:
Strand: 
✓ STEM  ABM  HUMSS  ICT (TVL Track)
Subject: Practical Research 2
Type of Activity: ✓ Concept Notes
  Skills: Exercise/Drill  Illustration
 Performance Task  Essay/Report  Others:
Activity Title: Natural Experiments
Learning Target: To describe and give an example of a natural experiment
References: (1) Reece et al., Campbell Biology 10th Ed. pp 6-8
(Author, Title, Pages)
(2) Raven et al., Biology. 11th Ed. pp 19-21
(3) B.E. Rubin, H. Shim, CVIF Learning Activities

Sometimes it is difficult or impossible to do a controlled experiment. In

this case, we may observe the variables of interest without altering them, in
the hope of learning something about their relationship.

Example:
Imagine we hypothesized that skydivers live shorter lives. Here, a
controlled study is not possible because we cannot go around forcing some
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people to jump out of planes and others not to. However, we can look to see
if skydivers tend to have shorter lives. In this way, we can test our
hypothesis by observing an experiment that is naturally occurring in nature.
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Exercises:
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1. Explain why it would be hard to know the effect of water on a plant

without a control experiment. (1 sentence max)
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2. One difficulty with natural experiments is it is hard to know if one

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variable causes the other. What is another factor that could affect
lifespans of skydivers besides skydiving? (1 sentence max)
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