Anybody else think that question 19 from the CSSA multiple choice was wrong?
From the paper:
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19. An endotherm has been defined as an animal that can control its body temperature by internal mechanisms.
A student researching endotherms obtained the following information from Wikipedia.
"The overall rate of an animal's body temperature increases by a factor of about two for every 10C rise in ambient temperature".
The relevance and reliability of this information from this site would be considered:
(A) NOT RELEVANT --- NOT RELIABLE
(B) RELEVANT --- NOT RELIABLE
(C) NOT RELEVANT --- RELIABLE
(D) RELEVANT --- RELIABLE
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Firstly, it doesn’t make sense. How do you measure the rate of an animal’s body temperature? Secondly, how can you conclude that the article is unreliable without looking at the sources? I looked at the references to the wikipedia article from which this quote was taken after the exam and they’re all mostly from peer-reviewed journals and such. They also misquoted the actual statement:
“The overall rate of an animal's metabolism increases by a factor of about two for every 10 °C”
I chose B for the sake of pleasing the markers (since so many people have a stigma against the reliability of wikipedia sources. In my opinion it should have been D). As it turns out, the correct answer was A.
I can understand it not being reliable, but not relevant? Thoughts?