These steps / actions were undertaken to ensure that this investigation could be considered as scientific proof as integral to the scientific method.
How Validity was maintainedTo make sure the experiment was valid, the apples were cut into identical sized pieces to ensure that the same amount of surface area was exposed to the air. This made sure there was no bias towards any apple as the one with the least surface area would have an advantage since less of it would have been exposed to the oxidation process that caused browning. Similar sized apples were also specifically chosen to maintain equal slices sizes.
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How Reliability was maintainedTo make sure the experiment was reliable, the experiment was repeated twice on different plates in the same environment. Repeating it reduced the effect of error or unwanted / uncontrolled variables from causing outliers or unexpected results towards one of the apples. Being in the same environment ensured that they were exposed to the same conditions as browning would be accelerated in warmer temperatures, and vice versa.
A cupboard with a clear glass window was chosen as an environment as the windows allowed me to view the browning progress, and being a close environment made it less likely for variables, such as room temperature and humidity to affect their browning. Having a camera record the experiment take place allowed me to re-watch the apples brown, after the experiment. This allowed me remove any error in my initial judgement of ‘turned brown’, and also to act as evidence of the experiment. |