The Scope of Inference
Chapter 4 - Day 10 - Lesson 4.3
Chapter 4
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
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Learning Targets
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Identify when it is appropriate to make an inference about a population and when it is appropriate to make an inference about cause and effect.
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Evaluate if a statistical study has been carried out in an ethical manner.
Activity: Does listening to music improve GPA?
Activity:
Answer Key:
Before starting the activity, you may want to remind students of the purpose of taking a random sample and using random assignment with the following two images from earlier in the course:
A random sample should be representative of the population, so we can generalize our conclusions from the sample to the population.
We use random assignment in an experiment to create two groups that are roughly equivalent, so that if there is a difference in the response variable at the end of the experiment, we can say the treatment caused the change.
Teaching Tip:
As part of the debrief, show students this chart that summarizes the four different scenarios.
Data Ethics
Even though this learning target is not covered on the AP Exam, we felt it was our duty to present these ideas to our students. This will be especially important for any of our students that might do research in their futures.