1. Pick one up from the front table.
Warm-Up Honors Algebra /1/19
Pick one up from the front table.

2. Objective
For a given statistical study, students will be able to determine the population, appropriate sampling methods, and study type.

3. The school newspaper has asked you to write a regular article using data gathered that will interest the students at Parkside High School.
For example, how many students in Salisbury leave the state to go to college.
Or, how many students eat breakfast at school.
I ask my students to brainstorm several ideas for this column and then write down their two favorites on a notecard. These will be used later in the assignment.

4. Experiment
An experiment is any process or study which the researcher has control on a treatment happening to a population.
I have provided a copy of these definitions so the students don’t have to spend time writing them down. We will talk about each one and then brainstorm strengths and weaknesses. With this in mind, I ask my students to paste this on the left side of their notes so we can write strengths and weaknesses on the right. Here is a good short summary of each type:

5. Experiment
For example: Turning the lights off in a classroom during class time and counting the number of students who fall asleep. Some classes would have their lights kept on and the number of students who fell asleep would be counted there as well. These would be the control classes.

6. Observational Study
The researcher does not influence the population in any way or attempt to intervene.   There is no experimental manipulation.  Instead, data is simply gathered and correlations are investigated.
Ex) Watching classes each period of the day to see the number of times students fall asleep.

7. Survey
Statistical surveys are used to collect quantitative information from a specific population.  A survey may focus on opinions or factual information depending upon the purpose of the study.  Surveys may involve answering a questionnaire or being interviewed by a researcher.
Ex) Giving out a survey asking students how many times they fall asleep during class.

8. Experiment +/- + You have control over what is changed and/or studied
- Some participants may not be completely truthful while the experiment is occurring (because they know an experiment is being conducted).
At this point, we will list the plusses and minuses for each type of study. I give the students a minute or two to brainstorm and then we share out as a class. Here are the things that need to come up: having an equivalent control group to compare, causation vs. correlation (basic intro level), have to have total control on the treatment,

9. Observation +/-
+ Typically get more honest/truthful data since the participants may not know that they are being observed
Ensuring not affecting what is happening, finding a correlation between what is being observed,
- Not able to easily compare data / no control/change

10. Survey +/- + Typically get honest opinions
+ Can be done in multiple ways
Can be a conversation, phone call, online, written survey, making sure the sample is random, making sure the questions are un-biased, honesty
- Can be biased because not everyone may participate.

11. Which type of study do you think is best to find the number of students at Parkside who sleep in class?
The goal of this activity is for the students to take the information they just learned and use it to evaluate a scenario.