Tuesday HW: Teach Yourself Experiments!

Tonight, be sure to complete the "ch. 13 reading questions" below. Tomorrow you will start class with a short (10 minute) quiz based on experiments--you will be able to use these answers on your quiz!

Remember that YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE TO TEACH YOURSELF CHAPTER 13! We will still have our take home test over break, which includes content about experiments. Also, we will have our unit vocabulary test (ch. 11, 12, 13) the Thursday after break!

Oh, and one more thing...tomorrow you will have 19 multiple choice questions for homework, which will be collected and graded (on Thursday). If you'd like to get a head start (b/c you already did your reading questions), you can find these questions under our "Resources: Powerpoint, Assignments, and More..." link! You can write your letter answers on a separate piece of paper for me to collect! (I want you to keep the packet/questions to use over break). 

Chapter 13 Challenge: Teaching Yourself Experiments and Observational Studies

Part I: Read the chapter and complete each of the questions below. Remember, this is for your benefit; the more thorough your notes/responses are, the better prepared we will be! 

·        These questions serve as an outline to help guide your reading. Of course you can take additional notes to strengthen your understanding!

1.      There are two types of observational studies—retrospective and prospective studies.

a.      What is a retrospective observational study?

b.      What is a prospective observational study?

c.      What is matching in an observational study? (page 305).

2.      In an experiment where does the random assignment occur?

3.      What is/are the factor(s), levels, and treatment(s) in an experiment?

4.      What is the response variable?

5.      What distinguishes an experiment from the other methods of data collection? In other words, how is an experiment different than a simulation, sample survey, and observational study?

6.      Describe/comment on each of the four principles of experimental design:

a.      Control:

b.     Randomize:

c.      Replicate:

d.     Block:

7.      What sampling method is equivalent to blocking in an experiment?

8.      *Read through the step-by-step examples in the chapter; these are the examples we would have discussed for our notes in class!

9.      Explain the meaning of “statistically significant.”

10.   What is a control treatment/control group?

11.   What does it mean for an experiment to be single-blind or double-blind?

12.   What is a placebo? Why do we use placebos?

13.   What does it mean for two variables to be confounded?

14.   In your own words summarize the procedure for the tomato/fertilizer experiment on page 298 -300.

**Note the vocabulary list on page 310-312. This list shows the words that you are responsible to know for our chapter 13 vocab!