Remote Ready Biology Learning Activities
Remote Ready Biology Learning Activities has 50 remote-ready activities, which work for either your classroom or remote teaching.
Narrative is determined not by a desire to narrate but by a desire to exchange. (Roland Barthes, S/Z)
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Neuron Behavior
Kaitlin Cough, Elizabeth Harnett
Our hypothesis was that reaction time would be slower if you were distracted, and it did not matter how far the stimulus was from the brain: it would still react at the same time. We did four different experiments testing neuron behavior. Kaitlin and Elizabeth were both tested. Constant: we always poked on the hand, with exception of the foot trial.
Experiment 1: Poking the hand without any distraction.
Elizabeth
t1
t2
t3
ND
MD
RT
1.106
1.233
1.278
0.127
0.045
0.172
1.955
2.103
2.151
0.148
0.048
0.196
2.812
2.913
2.964
0.101
0.051
0.152
Kaitlin
t1
t2
t3
ND
MD
RT
4.37
4.508
4.561
0.138
0.053
0.191
6.494
6.6
6.65
0.138
0.05
0.188
10.214
10.34
10.392
0.126
0.052
0.178
Experiment 2: Poking on the foot without distraction.
Elizabeth
2.467
2.661
2.708
0.194
0.047
0.241
4.04
4.167
4.199
0.127
0.032
0.159
7.301
7.459
7.501
0.158
0.042
0.2
Kaitlin
6.982
7.114
7.156
0.132
0.042
0.174
8.931
8.995
9.092
0.064
0.097
0.161
13.418
13.573
13.636
0.155
0.063
0.218
Experiment 3: Poking on the hand while talking on the phone.
Elizabeth
1.005
1.224
1.289
0.219
0.065
0.284
19.684
20.073
20.121
0.389
0.048
0.437
27.064
27.374
27.408
0.31
0.034
0.344
Kaitlin
15.281
15.532
15.592
0.251
0.06
0.311
16.794
16.97
17.051
0.176
0.081
0.257
20.596
20.842
20.902
0.246
0.06
0.306
Experiment 4: Poking on the hand while reading.
Elizabeth
10.874
11.19
11.247
0.316
0.057
0.373
26.534
26.817
26.854
0.283
0.037
0.32
39.302
39.518
39.575
0.216
0.057
0.273
Kaitlin
10.865
10.956
10.996
0.091
0.04
0.131
13.912
13.993
14.058
0.081
0.065
0.146
7.462
7.627
7.684
0.165
0.057
0.22
We discovered that our first hypothesis was correct: if you were distracted, then the reaction time was much longer. This could especially be seen while we were talking on the phone. However, our second hypothesis was slightly disproven. We found that distance from the brain did have an effect on reaction time, even though the reaction time was not as slow as when we were distracted.
Our story: Don't talk on your cell phone when your driving!
Distance from the brain has a slight effect on reaction time, though nothing as drastic as distractions (reading, talking, etc.) Maybe a next step could have been to test the effect of music on reaction time, because usually when you are driving you are listening to music.