BIOL 160 UM The Cows that Produced Low Fat Content Milk Questions

Visit the “Course Content” area, then click on the “Science Learning Center” and finally click on “The Scientific Method Tutorial”.

After you have read through the tutorial, discuss the following:

You live in a rural area. Your local radio station reports the results of an experiment a high school student conducted to test the

effects of a healthy diet on the saturated fat content of cow’s milk. The student’s father bought 6 cows from two different sellers.

Cows from seller 1 were fed the student’s special mixed-grass diet; the other cows from seller 2 were fed the usual animal feed.

The student discovered that milk from the cows had lower saturated fat than then cows fed the usual feed.

The radio station report created a lot of attention and coverage in other media beyond the local radio station.

The student thought he might look into a financial sponsor to promote and even patent his special mixed-grass diet.

Based on this limited information and using the scientific method:

I. What problems do you see with the student’s study?

II. Help the student develop a better question followed by a hypothesis. Then …

III. Design a brief experiment to test your hypothesis (make sure to indicate a control) and describe (in brief) predicted results.

(The reading for this week will also help you in this exercise).

http://extension.psu.edu/animals/dairy/nutrition/n…