Got Enough Sleep?
Ludia Hong & Mythili Ponnapalli, 6
Question
Hypothesis
Type of Investigation
Parts of Experiment
Independent Variable - amount of sleep received per week
Control - none (comparative)
Experimental Group - 25 high school students, grades ranging from 10th to 12th
Constant Factors - students were from Coppell High School
Data Table
Average Hours of Sleep Based on Time Spent on Activities
Bar Graphs
Analysis
The manipulated evidence in the data table indicates that the mean number of hours of sleep a high school student receives each week does not vary much depending on whether they spend more or less than eight hours in extracurricular activities; the mean hours of sleep of spending more than eight hours in an activity is 32 hours and the mean hours of sleep of spending less than eight hours in an activity is 33 hours, only a one hour difference. The graphs above with the mean hours of sleep as well as the error bars representing two SEM (standard error) and range show that the error bars overlap, therefore, indicating that there is not a significant difference. Going further into the results, because the p-value of 0.52 is greater than 0.05, this indicates that the independent variable did not have a significant effect on the two groups.
The energy conservation theory of sleep states that organisms that burn energy quickly or produce significant amounts of body heat sleep more than organisms that are mostly inactive. This theory would predict that high school students who spend more than eight hours in extracurricular activities receive more hours of sleep than those students who do not because they physically need the restorative sleep. However, the results from this investigation may not fully support this theory because of the small number of test subjects as well as not considering that those who do not spend more than eight hours on activities may use their free time on other matters and then procrastinate on completing assignments and those who do spend more than eight hours on activities may be more diligent on completing their assignments right after their activities, knowing that they do not have much time.
Conclusion
Sources of Inaccuracies/Errors
Confusion in determining significant digits may have accounted for human error in the manipulated data due to inconsistency.
Bibliography
Martin, Jennifer. Designing a Scientific Questionnaire Online Poster. N.p.: n.p., n.d. PDF.
Martin, Jennifer. Designing a Scientific Questionnaire. N.p.: n.p., n.d. PDF.
"Sleep - Beliefs, Theories, And Scientific Observations Of Sleep." - Theory, Body, Rem, and
Animals. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Sept. 2015.