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Scope of Inference (Topics 3.2 & 3.7)

Chapter 4 - Day 11

Learning Targets
  • Understand why a result can be extended to the population from which the sample was randomly selected.

  • Given a description of a study with or without random assignment, determine whether there is evidence for a causal relationship. 

Activity: Does SAT Prep Improve Scores? Part 2
Activity:
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Answer Key:
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Card Sort:
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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.

Luke's Lesson Notes

Here is a brief video highlighting some key information to help you prepare to teach this lesson.

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