Challenge:

I am a food chemistry student at the university, in which one of the practices consists of measuring the moisture of a food. Moisture in food is the amount of water, steam or any other liquid present in the food. The importance of measuring this humidity is the adequate conservation because at lower humidity levels the growth of microorganisms is lower and at a higher level their growth increases. In practice, it is required to make precise measurements and ensure that the uncertainty is as low as possible, my challenge is to identify the variables that can affect the uncertainty and order them according to their impact on my result.

Selection:

I decided to use a visualization tool, using the Ishikawa diagram. It is a cause and effect diagram which has the shape of the bones of a fish, which establishes hierarchies regarding the causes of the problem. The greatest advantage of this tool compared to just writing the variables is to visually identify the most important aspects of the process. As the designer Angela Meyer says in the video of visualization.

“It allows us to think in a nonverbal way.

It allows us to access parts of our brain, parts of our creativity”

Application:

Make the necessary adjustments to the Ishikawa diagram, for my practice putting as an effect the uncertainty in the measurement of contained moisture (%) and I was adding the causes of this error: -Analytical balance -Quantity of Flour -Drying time -Operator

Insight:

The use of this tool provided a new perspective to the analysis of the experimental data, giving a more creative approach at the same time that made us reflect on how uncertainty could be reduced in subsequent experiments.

Approach:

As an alternative measure, it was also decided to make a graph for the laboratory report where the percentage of moisture contained was plotted and adding strong colors for the factors that most contributed to the uncertainty of the results. Concluding that the use of visual media in the works facilitates their understanding and explanation of the results.

