BME 435, Student-Directed
Laboratory
Objective:
You
are required to design and conduct an experiment to test a hypothesis.
Suggestions:
Your
experiment will relate to some aspect of physiology that includes knowledge gained
in BIEN 301, BIEN 401, and/or BIEN 420 (i.e. something of a mechanical or
transport nature).
Requirements:
Please
refer to the handout from the first day entitled: "Steps in Planning a
Research Experiment."
You
are required to include the following in the project:
1. A
hypothesis that is interesting and testable.
2. Design/construction/analysis
of the experimental apparatus needed to test your hypothesis.
3. Preliminary
data collection to check the feasibility of the experiment.
4. A
refined experiment that makes use of experience gained with the preliminary
experiment.
5. A
theoretical model for the physical phenomenon being studied.
6. Statistical
testing of your hypothesis (e.g. t-test).
7. A
formal written report in the format Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results,
Discussion, Conclusions. Be sure to
answer the stated hypothesis in your conclusion section.
Deadlines:
By Thursday, Feb 12:
1. Organize
into groups.
2. Submit
to me three suggestions for experiments.
3. Based
on discussions with me, elect your topic and provide a title.
4. Work
out the details of your experimental design (including apparatus, analysis and statistical testing).
5. Generate
a list of all materials that will be
needed.
By Tuesday, February 17th:
Submit
a proposal on the topic (3 pages maximum).
This must be submitted by email as an attachment in Microsoft Word.
Thursday, February 19th:
1. Set
up preliminary apparatus and take
any preliminary data.
2. Make
sure all parts of the device work.
3. Take
a set of preliminary data with the
device.
4. Perform
any analysis required on the data
that you collect.
5. Set
up a MS Excel file to do any of the
data analysis that will be necessary.
This will make your job much easier when you go to evaluate your data
the following week.
6. Revise experimental apparatus
as needed (if required).
7. Report
to me any changes that you are making to your experimental design as a result
of your preliminary studies.
Thursday, February 26th:
1.
Take a complete data set with your revised experimental design.
2.
Analyze
your complete data set.
3.
Note any data that look questionable,
and make a list of questions that arise
from the data.
Tuesday, March 2nd:
Complete laboratory writeup due.
Steven A. Jones
Biomedical Engineering 435,
Biomedical Senior Laboratory