Surveys, Observational Studies and Experiments

Determine whether the situation is an experiment or observational study.

A researcher asks students the average number of hours of sleep they get per night and examines whether the amount of sleep affects students' grades.

• Experiment

• Observational Study

Determine whether the situation is an experiment or observational study.

A park employee wants to know if latex paint is more durable than non-latex paint.  She paints 50 benches with latex paint and 50 with non-latex paint.

• Experiment

• Observational Study

Four groups of randomly selected people are assigned a different diet. After six months, the blood pressures of each group are compared.

• Observational Study

• Experiment

A researcher stood at a school parking lot entrance to see if the color of a car is related to the driver not wearing a seatbelt.

• Observational Study

• Experiment

In an ________________, a researcher observes and measures characteristics of interest of part of the population but does not change existing conditions.

• Experiment

• Observational Study

Individuals are observed and variables are measured without controlling the individuals or the environment

• population

• observational study

• experiment

• secondary data

Individuals are monitored for measures of variables of interest but not influenced in response.

• Observational Study

• Experiment

• Voluntary Response

• Single-Blind

Which scenario is best described as an observational study?

• For a class project, students in Health class ask every 10^th student entering the school if they eat breakfast in the morning

• A social researcher wants to learn whether or not there is a link between attendance and grades. She gathers data from 15 school districts

• A researcher wants to learn whether or not there is a link between children’s daily amount of physical activity and their overall energy level. During lunch at the local high school, she distributed a short questionnaire to students in the cafeteria

• Sixty seniors taking a course in Advanced Algebra Concepts are randomly divided into two classes. One class uses a graphing calculator all the time, and the other class never uses graphing calculators. A guidance counselor wants to determine whether there is a link between graphing calculator use and students’ final exam grades

Determine whether the following is an observational study, a survey, or an experiment.

Members of the student council ask every freshman walking into the cafeteria whether they like the snack's in the school's vending machines.

• Observational Study

• Survey

• Experiment

All sample surveys are observational studies

• TRUE

• FALSE