Activity #8

Gary Levine describes an activity that can be used to teach students about experimental design.

Mon, 28 Aug 2000
Gary Levine
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania
glevine@edinboro.edu

Each student has to find 3 "real world" items. The first is a product/advertisement. The second is a claim about behavior. The third is an article summarizing "real" scientific research in the media. They have to turn in written critiques of the items, claims, etc. Then, the day I hand each of the assignments back, I'll have selected some of the juiciest examples and have them (in small groups) really try to dissect the problems & usually have them design an experiment that would test the product, claim, or add to the "real" research study.... The products are easy to find and usually easy to design a simple study to test. The claims are more wide-ranging. I give them a lot of flexibility here. A number found claims about reducing violence in schools (e.g., installing metal detectors, more police in schools). Others found claims about relationships (e.g., my favorite was the claim that using "baby talk" with your partner will improve your relationship). For the "real" research, you will usually get a correlation-causation leap in the mix, but if not there was plenty of issues to discuss in the other examples they found.