David B. Howell
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A. Objectives—same as Lesson 1.
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B. The experimental question—same as Lesson 1.
C. Issues, and some possible resolutions—
[Try to use a larger population, such as all Grade 10 students or the entire school.]
Can we realistically count everyone? What samples could we use? How random are they? How will we do the survey? How will we record the data? Is it appropriate to use as samples other classes of mine? Other classes of yours? A table-full of students in the cafeteria?
[Record data on Worksheet 1. Have teams of two students take a sample of 10. Or use techniques suggested by the class.]
D. Observations and discussion to Objectives—
Several issues have been raised. What is the possibility of membership in more than one sample? Does it matter? [This is, of course, the issue of sampling with or without replacement. For large populations and relatively small samples, there isn’t much difference.] What about the impact of cliques on even the objective measure of height? Would it be likely, for example, that a group of tall people would sit together in the cafeteria? Or a group of all girls? Did everyone collect data the same way? Were different questions used, for example? Did everyone record the data the same way?