Unit 10: Hypothesis Tests

Text reading and homework:

Read chapter 26 of FPP and do the following review exercises:
Chapter 26 (pages 495-500): 2, 3, 4, 5, 7

Reading:

"If you want answers, why not run your own trials?" by Ben Goldacre, the Guardian of London, 30 Sept 2011. (A version appeared on p. 58 of the Main section of the Guardian the same day.)

Document source: Linked to the "Bad Science" website.

Possible essay questions:

The author says the "folk trials" he describes are open to "cautious interpretation." What are some reasons to be cautious about such a trial?
Why would a trial about beer and hangovers require fewer participants than a trial about coffee and depression?

Writing Assignment (Midterm Project II):

For this unit you will take the results of the online survey taken by the members of the class and write the Statement of the Problem, Method and Results sections in the style of a final project (as described in the guidelines). (The Background section is to be omitted here, but it is needed in the final project.) The Statement of the Problem is just that: the questions you would like to answer using some of the survey results (just the ones relevant to your question, of course). The Method section should describe the online survey itself, the statistical tests you have decided to use to analyze the data, and why you chose them. The Results should give, clearly, concisely and objectively, the numbers (averages, slopes of regression lines, etc.) and perhaps a few graphs (most of those would appear only in the appendix, but a few illustrative ones can go here) that result from your analysis. You should not state definitive conclusions -- they would go into the unwritten Discussion/Conclusions section. These three sections should take a total 2-5 pages.