biology lab homework

Question

A team of students wants to study the effect of temperature on bacteria growth. They put the dishes in different places: an incubator 37C, a lab room 21C, a refrigerator 10C, a freezer 0C. Bacterial growth is measured by estimating the percentage of each dish that is covered by bacteria at the end of a three-day growth period.

 

b. What type of graph would be used to present these data. Explain why?

 

Answer 1

I would use a simple scatterplot to show the relation: x axis being temperature and bacterial growth on the y-axis. Scatterplots are useful for identifying relationships between two quantitative variables. With enough data, you can see what the distribution/trend is (random vs. linear vs. exponential vs sigmoidal, etc.)