Notes

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Notes
SPI 0807.Inq.5 Bias and Error
Bias and Error in Science
Bias this means you are prejudiced towards or
against something and that you allow your views
to affect the results of your experiment.

• Science is about obtaining accurate results

so bias should NEVER be allowed to influence
your experimental results!
Bias Is Bad!
Bias
Bias
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Notes
SPI 0807.Inq.5 Bias and Error
Bias in Science Experiments
Example Imagine that you doing an experiment to
determine which NFL football quarterback can
throw a football the furthest. Your favorite
football team is the Tennessee Titans, so you are
disappointed with your data when you notice that
the Titans' quarterback's throwing distance is
not the furthest. Yet because this is your
favorite quarterback, you change the data so that
this quarterback appears to throw the furthest.
This is bias, and it should NEVER be allowed in
science experiments!
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SPI 0807.Inq.5 Bias and Error
Notes
Example Bubba loves to eat french fries with
lots of extra salt. He conducts an experiment to
determine how much better french fries taste
with lots of extra salt. Identify the bias or
error in this situation ANSWER Because Bubba
likes extra salt on his fries, he wrongly assumes
that everyone else will like extra salt too. He
is biased toward salt, so his results will
contain errors. Bias should NEVER be allowed in
science experiments!
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Notes
SPI 0807.Inq.5 Bias and Error
Bias in Science
Two students who love Justin Biebers music do
an experiment to measure how long people have to
hear one of Justins songs before they too fall
in love with his music. Question Which choice
below most likely will occur? (Just write the
correct letter) A) Bias B) Fraud and
Waste C) Song and Dance
Answer These two students are biased towards
Justin Beiber, so their results will probably be
biased and wrong too
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Notes
SPI 0807.Inq.5 Bias and Error
Errors in Science

• Avoid Mistakes
• One small error can result in all your
  experimental data being wrong
• So scientist work very hard to avoid making
  mistakes
• Peer Review
• One key way scientists deal with this issue is by
  having other scientists review their work to a
  check for mistakes
• This very common practice is called peer review