Modeling Prompt

It is important to note that students will not have addressed all the concepts needed to answer all of the questions at the beginning of the unit, but they can begin to think about what experiment they would like to do. After lesson 3, students will be able to answer the first two questions, although they will need time to gather their data before they can answer the second question. They will not learn about simulations until lesson 14, so after that they will be able to answer the other questions.

Introducing this prompt early in the unit can be very beneficial because the more time students have to do their experiments, the wider the variety of experiments they’ll be able to do. Consider partnering with a science class to give students more resources and options.

Giving students access to technology will streamline the process of analyzing the data. Tools for doing a simulation, or a randomization test for a difference in means, are available online.

Make sure students check with you before they begin their experiments, so that they don’t accidentally use any treatments that could cause harm or select experiments that are too ambitious for the time allotted. They will need at least 8 subjects, but the subjects do not have to be humans—they could be plants or objects, for example.

1. Choose a question that you can investigate by doing an experiment. You should have at least 8 subjects.
   1. What is the population?
   2. What is the response variable?
   3. What are the treatments?
   4. How will you divide subjects into groups?
2. Gather your data. What is the mean of each group? Without analyzing the results further, predict whether the treatment seems to have an effect.
3. Then analyze your data using simulations. How likely is it that the results happened by chance?
4. What are some possible sources of error in your experiment?
5. Do you think the treatment caused a response? What other information could you learn that would help you decide?

It is very important to note that students will not have addressed all the concepts needed to answer all of the questions at the beginning of the unit, but they can begin to think about what experiment they would like to do. After lesson 3, students will be able to answer the first three questions, although they will need time to gather their data before they can answer the third question. They will not learn about simulations until lesson 14, so after that they will be able to answer the other questions.

Introducing this prompt early in the unit can be very beneficial, because the more time students have to do their experiments, the wider the variety of experiments they’ll be able to do. Consider partnering with a science class to give students more resources and options.

The launch can be modified so that students can discuss questions they might be able to investigate related to the prompt, which is about factors that affect a person’s ability to concentrate. Having some time to think about different possibilities may help students decide what experiment they’d like to do. This could also be a good time to discuss how to measure how well a person is concentrating. One way is to have subjects do a simple task that still requires some thought, like solving a maze or a word search puzzle, and time how long it takes them to complete it.

Giving students access to technology will streamline the process of analyzing the data. Tools are available online for doing a simulation or a randomization test for a difference in means.

Make sure students check with you before they begin their experiments, so that they don’t accidentally use any treatments that could cause harm or select experiments that are too ambitious for the time allotted.

1. What are some factors that might help someone concentrate? What are some factors that might distract someone?
2. Choose one of these factors to study with an experiment. You should have at least 8 subjects.
   1. What is the population?
   2. What is the response variable?
   3. What are the treatments?
   4. How will you divide subjects into groups?
3. Gather your data. What is the mean of each group? Without analyzing the results further, predict whether the treatment seems to have an effect.
4. Analyze your data using simulations. How likely is it that the results happened by chance?
5. What are some possible sources of error in your experiment?
6. Do you think the treatment caused a response? What other information could you learn that would help you decide?