3.2 Grouping Studies by Type

A study investigated whether boys are quicker at learning video games than girls. Twenty randomly selected boys and twenty randomly selected girls played a video game that they had never played before. The time it took them to reach a certain level of expertise was recorded.

• Experiment

• Observation

As your statistics project, you collect data by posting five questions on poster board around your classroom and recording how your classmates respond to them.

• Experiment

• Observation

Tags

CCSS.6.SP.B.5B

A professional sports team traded its best player. The local television station wanted to find out what the fans thought of the trade. At the beginning of the evening news program, they asked viewers to call one number if they favored the trade and a different number if they were opposed to the trade. At the end of the news program, they announced that 53.7% of callers favored the trade.

• Experiment

• Observation

Tags

CCSS.HSS.IC.B.3

The local department of transportation is responsible for maintaining lane and edge lines on its paved roads. There are two new paint products on the market. Twenty comparable stretches of road are identified. Paint A is randomly assigned to ten of the stretches of road and paint B to the other ten. The department finds that paint B lasts longer.

• Experiment

• Observation

Tags

CCSS.HSS.IC.B.3

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conducts annual studies on drivers’ seatbelt use at a random selection of roadway sites in each state in the United States. To determine if seatbelt usage has increased, data are analyzed over two successive years.

• Experiment

• Observation

People should brush their teeth at least twice a day for at least two to three minutes with each brushing. For a statistics class project, you ask a random number of students at your school questions concerning their tooth brushing activities.

• Experiment

• Observation

Tags

CCSS.HSS.IC.B.3

A study determines whether taking aspirin regularly helps to prevent heart attacks. A large group of male physicians of comparable health were randomly assigned equally to taking an aspirin every second day or to taking a placebo. After several years, the proportion of the study participants who had suffered heart attacks in each group was compared.

• Experiment

• Observation

Tags

CCSS.HSS.IC.B.3

You want to see if fifth-grade boys or fifth-grade girls are faster at solving Ken-Ken puzzles. You randomly select twenty fifth-grade boys and twenty fifth-grade girls from fifth graders in your school district. You time and record how long it takes each student to solve the same Ken-Ken puzzle correctly.

• Experiment

• Observation

Ken wants to compare how many hours a week that sixth graders spend doing mathematics homework to how many hours a week that eleventh graders spend doing mathematics homework. He randomly selects ten 6^th graders and ten 11^th graders and records how many hours each student spent on mathematics homework in a certain week.

• Experiment

• Observation

Tags

CCSS.HSS.IC.B.3