The Paper Towel Lab

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The Paper Towel Lab

• For Pre-IB Biology

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Introduction

• You work for a company and have been asked to
  develop and perform an experiment to determine
  which paper towel brand will be the best to
  purchase.

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• Company concerns include the following
• Cost per sheet
• Absorbency of liquid per sheet.
• Product testing will be required to complete this
  task.

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• After the experiment is complete the CEO wants a
  presentation of facts with a table of all data
  collected and a graph that is easy to read.
• You will need to prepare your information for the
  PR people to make all the graphics.

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• You will sit down with the graphics people and
  you must have a clean sample of each item you
  want to present.
• So. . . Lets get started!

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Step 1 The problem

• State the problem that you wish to test

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Step 2 Background

• Gather and condense your background information
• Include the information on your product. (keep it
  simple)

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Step 3 Hypothesis

• Write your hypothesis to provide a place for you
  to start with your experiment.
• This will be in the form of if ___ then___ type
  statement or I believe that _____ because ___.

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Step 4 Equipment

• You have the following equipment available for
  use from your lab. You may use all of it or some
  of it. Since you are the creator of this
  experiment, you decide how to go about completing
  your task.

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Equipment

• 3 brands of paper towel
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Tweezers
• water

• Eye dropper
• Graduated cylinders
• Beakers
• A stopwatch
• 3-beam balance

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Step 5 Procedures

• After you decide how you will conduct your
  experiment, you will need to write complete,
  detailed, procedures.
• These procedures need to be step by step with
  enough detail for anyone to follow.

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Step 6 The Experiment

• Perform your experiment with the appropriate
  number of trials.
• Record your data in a data table.

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Step 7 Data Analysis

• Examine your data and decide if your hypothesis
  was correct. (dont change it if it was incorrect
  that is just as good as a correct one)
• What does your data show you?

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• Make your Graph that will give you the
  appropriate information (not each trial but the
  average) to present to the CEO. Make sure you
  include the title, axis labels, units of
  measurement, and any key information.

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Step 8 Conclusion

• This is where you tie all your hard labor
  together.
• Discuss the significance of your results.
• This will be where you explain your findings for
  the CEO.

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• How does your data help you with your problem?
  What will you tell the CEO? Which product will
  you recommend and WHY?
• Use your price comparison as part of your final
  conclusion.

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Finally . . . Write and answer these.

• What is your independent variable?
• What is your dependent variable?
• What are the constants? Also called controls.

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• 4. What could you do to improve your experiment?
• 5. Did you find that anything went wrong? Explain
  your answer.