Quiz on Observational and Experimental Studies

You want to see if students who have a 4.0 grade point average study more than those who do not.

• experiment

• observational study

A researcher stood at a school parking lot entrance to see if the color of a car is related to the driver not wearing a seatbelt.

• Observational Study

• Experiment

A professor finds that people who are obese have higher cholesterol levels than those who are not obese.

• Observational Study

• Experiment

Which scenario is best described as an observational study?

• For a class project, students in Health class ask every 10^th student entering the school if they eat breakfast in the morning

• A social researcher wants to learn whether or not there is a link between attendance and grades. She gathers data from 15 school districts

• A researcher wants to learn whether or not there is a link between children’s daily amount of physical activity and their overall energy level. During lunch at the local high school, she distributed a short questionnaire to students in the cafeteria

• Sixty seniors taking a course in Advanced Algebra Concepts are randomly divided into two classes. One class uses a graphing calculator all the time, and the other class never uses graphing calculators. A guidance counselor wants to determine whether there is a link between graphing calculator use and students’ final exam grades

To test the effects of breakfast on grades I ask my students if they ate breakfast and then compare the breakfast eaters grades to the non-breakfast eaters. This is an example of:

• Observational study

• Experiment

Researchers wanted to know if there is a link between proximity to high-tension wires and the rate of leukemia in children. To conduct the study, researchers compared the rate of leukemia for children who lived within 1/2 mile of high-tension wires to the rate of leukemia for children who did not live within 1/2 mile of high-tension wires.

• Observational Study

• Experiment

Identify each of the following as an observational study or an experiment. Determine if people who take vitamin C every day are less likely to get colds.

• Observational study

• Experiment

You want to compare the health of students who walk to school to the health of students who ride the bus

• experiment

• observational study

In a(n) ____________________ study, researchers observe and measure variables without manipulating any factors.

• experimental

• observational

• theoretical

• clinical

What type of study is being conducted when researchers observe and record the natural behavior of wild chimpanzees without intervention?

• Sample survey

• Observational study

• Experiment

• Primary data collection