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
A
Repeat the experiment ten times. Label the y-axis “Time” and the x-axis “Trial.” Plot the average time for all ten rats for each trial of the experiment.
B
Divide the rats into groups of females and males and repeat. Label the y-axis “Time” and the x-axis “Sex of Rat.” Plot the average time for each group.
C
Repeat the experiment ten times. Label the y-axis “Rat Number” and the x-axis “Time.” Plot the individual time for all ten rats for each trial of the experiment.
D
Divide the rats into two groups based on their speed from the initial data. Label the y-axis “Time” and the x-axis “Group.” Plot the average time for each group.
Explanation
Repeating the experiment gives Nalah measurements across ten ordered trials. She can plot the trial number on the x-axis and the average running time of all ten rats on the y-axis, making changes in the average time easy to see as a single line. Rat numbers do not represent an ordered variable that would show a meaningful trend, and grouping by sex or initial speed would produce category comparisons rather than a trend across trials.
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