Science or Pseudoscience?
What is science that appears to be scientific and may be claimed to be scientific but it isn't
Pseudoscience
What is an independent variable?
The independent variable in an experiment is the variable that is manipulated and can be controlled by the experimenter. The independent variable is in theory going to alter the dependent variable.
You see a questioner online asking for information on what area you live in and your political view. What type of experiment is this?
A survey
What is Correlation
Correlations is the variable that describes the relationship between two variables
This is the group of people that we are trying to gain information about. For example, if you wanted information on the weights of males aged 18-30, males aged 18-30 would be the population for this experiment.
A scientist has finished an experiment and has published wrote an article about it without uploading the experiment to a public forum. Is this a valid scientific experiment?
No, one of the three key features of science includes public knowledge and getting peer review.
A study is conducted to see how eating carrots improves vision. Participants are randomly assigned into two groups. One group eats 10 carrots a day, while the other doesn’t eat any carrots at all. After a week, both groups will take a vision test and be scored on how quality their vision is. It is found that as the amount of carrots consumed increases, the scores on the vision test increase as well. In this study, the scores of the vision test would be considered what?
Dependent Variable
An example of an experiment would be testing the use of a new powder for muscle growth by going to your immediate family and making them workout. You would give one group of people to take the powder, one group would get nothing and the last group would get a placebo powder as a control. What is wrong with this experiment?
The population is not randomly assigned
What is Causation?
Causation is the idea that one event happened due to another event happening.
What is simple random sampling?
This is the most common type of unbiased sampling. SRS consist of names of a population being put into some type of randomizer and then a desired number of those names are chosen randomly.
What is one reason someone might fall for pseudoscience?
1.The person may not have trust in science or not understand science very well
2.The person may have certain political ideologies that make them want to believe that news
3.The person trusts only one source of information and that source puts out psuedoscience
If you did an experiment testing the relationship between how much money a person has and what their age is, what would be the independent variable of this experiment?
The persons age
A researcher is setting up a study to test how temperature affects sleep. There are 20 participants, and each is randomly assigned to either a room at 80 degrees or 50 degrees. The participants have no input on what temperature they are assigned. The distribution of participants across the two groups is equal, which keeps the study fair. The study contains an independent variable, the temperature of the room, and a dependent variable, the quality of sleep the participants experience. This study is an example of what?
Experimental studies
Can correlation be a numerical value?
Yes, correlation has a numerical range from -1 to 1 where 1 is strong positive correlation and -1 is strong negative correlation. When the value is 0 that means there is no correlation between variables
For an experiment, each person in the population is given a number. The researchers then use a random number generator to pick participants. What type of sampling is this?
Simple random sampling
What are the three key features of Science?
1."Systematic empiricism": Systematic empiricism refers to the fact that science must be based on observation and experimentation
2."Empirical questions": The questions that scientists test must be able to be answered through observation or facts. This also means that the claims that scientists make must be able to be proven false
3."Public knowledge": The fact that the information scientists have is available to the public and their peers so it can be critiqued
In a study, 10 participants are given a pill to take that will make them drowsy. 5 of the participants take a real pill that induces drowsiness, while the other 5 take a sugar pill that has no real effect. The participants are not told which pill they are taking, and the participants who took the sugar pill begin to claim to feel drowsy, as they are feeding that expectation to their brain. In this scenario, the placebo effect, which is an outside factor that could affect the experiment, would be an example of what?
Confounding Variable
What is the tentative answer to the experiment called?
Hypothesis
What are the 3 requirements for causation
1.There needs to be correlation between variables 2.Causes must precede effects
3.Confounding variables must be excluded.
Allen divides a sample of kids into subgroups by age, like 2–5, 6–9, 9–11, 11–14, and 14 and above. He then takes a proportional amount of kids from each group to use in his study. What type of sampling method is this?
Stratified random sampling
A person believes that they can predict your future based on the alignment of the stars and when you were born. This is an example of what?
Pseudoscience
A study is being conducted to see how exercise affects weight loss. There are two groups in the study. One group will work out for 2 hours every day, while the other group will not exercise at all. The participants are to be split into these two groups, but they have the choice and free will to pick which group they want to be a part of. More participants end up choosing the group that doesn't exercise, and the researcher now must keep a very close eye out for anything confounding variables that may arise in the study. This study is an example of what?
Quasi Experimental study
In a study it was shown that the correlation between sunscreen sales and UV index had a correlation value of 0.9, what type of correlation is this?
Strong positive correlation
What is the sample of the experiment?
The sample is the participants that are selected from a population for the experiment. Samples can be bad if they become biased. An unbiased sample is what you want when gathering a sample, the sample will represent the entire population and everyone will have an equal chance at being selected