Question

Nalah labels ten rats with the numbers 1 through 10. Then, she records how long it takes each rat to run through a maze. She finds it difficult to graph her data in a line graph. What change could she make to her experimental design that would allow her to plot a clearly displayed data trend in a single line graph

Answer 1

She shouldn't use the numbers given to EACH rats to plot the graph. In my opinion, I suggest Nalah to use the number of rats as the x-axis and use the average time taken to run thru the maze as the y-axis.For example, there are 5 rats took an average of 3 minutes to finish the maze. The other 3 took an average of 4 minutes to finish the maze while the last two rats took an average of 5 minutes to finish the maze. By doing this way will be easy for her to plot the line graph.

Answer 2

In the given case, Nalah needs to repeat the experiment ten times. In this, there is a need to label the y-axis as time, and the x-axis as trial. She needs to plot the average time for all the ten rats for each trial of the experiment.

In order to demonstrate the data in the line graph, one requires various data from a similar condition. Comparing various subjects/conditions in the line graph will not be suitable. The best way would be to repeat the experiment and insert the data from similar conditions on the graph to observe whether there is any advancement on latter trial.