AP bio vocab

scientific method

A step by step process used by scientists to investigate questions, gather evidence, and draw conclusions based on expirements and observations.

null hypothesis

a hypothesis where there is no effect or no difference between the groups of data

alternative hypothesis

a hypothesis that shows there is a relationship between the two groups of data.

hypothesis

a testable explanation for an observation

control group neg vs positive

control group- used for comparison to the expiremental group to help validate the statistics

pos-Group not exposed to the IV but is exposed to a proven treatment

neg-Group not exposed to any treatment

expiremental group

recieves the expiremental treatment being tested to observe the outcome.

independent variable

the core factor that is changed between the groups

dependent variable

the factor that is measured and effected by the independent variable

constants

factors kept consistent for all groups to ensure only the independent variable effects the expirement

Statistics

methods used to collect, process, or interpret quantitive data.

descriptive statistics

methods used to summarize or describe observations/samples

inferential statistics

using observations to make estimates or predictions generalizing from a sample to a wider population.

central tendencies

The center can be described by the mean, median, and mode

mean

avg of the data set

median

the middle number in a range of data points

mode

the value that appears the most often

variability

The degree to which data are spread out in a data set.

Range