Investigating variation Flashcards
What is variation?
Variation is the differences that exist between individuals
What can variation be caused by?
Genetic factors
Environmental factors
What genetic factors can cause variation?
Different species have different genes which cause variation between species.
Individuals of the same species have the same genes but have different alleles which causes variation within species
What type of environmental differences can cause variation?
Climate
Food
Lifestyle
Why do you use population samples?
It is too time consuming and impossible to catch all individuals in the group
Why is random sampling important?
To avoid any biases in the sample and it accurately represents the whole sample
How can you make a random sample?
Divide the sample area into a grid and create co-ordinates and then generate co-ordinates at random
How do you calculate the mean?
mean = total of all values in the data / the number of values in your data
What does the standard deviation show?
The spread of values around the mean
What does it mean if the standard deviation bars dont overlap?
The results are statistically significantly different
What does it mean if the standard deviation bars overlap?
The results are not statistically significant
