Unit 2 Lesson 3: Introduction to Experiments

Aligned to AP Statistics standards. Use these guided notes and practice to introduce the topic of experimental design to your students. Pair it with my guided notes and practice materials on placebos, blinding and control groups for a complete set of notes on experiments. Add in my popular Experimental Design project to round out the unit! 

Complete guided notes and practice answer key included. This packet includes guided notes and practice on the following topics: 

• Experimental design vocabulary
• Randomization, replication, control and blocking in experiments
• Explanatory and response variables
• Analysis of experimental designs 

Includes both PDF version and editable Google doc. Use the editable Google doc to customize these notes, and/or to share with your students for digital note taking. Use PDF for printable version for in person instruction or to pair with apps like Kami for digital note taking. If you prefer Word to Google docs, you can export to Word and edit there. 

For more information about the materials, read below.  

• Vocabulary Challenge. One page description of overall purpose of experiments and general principles of their design, with blanks to fill in critical vocabulary terms. Students read this and attempt to fill in the blanks. Then, share the correct answers and read back the entire page with words filled in, to provide an introductory summary to the concept of designing experiments. Terms used include:
  • Experimental units
  • Subjects
  • Participants
  • Randomization
  • Random assignment
  • Experimental conditions
  • Explanatory variable
  • Response variable
  • Compare
  • Treatment
  • Confounding variable

• Key concepts of experimental design graphic organizer that lists the elements of experiments and where they appear in an experimental design. Key concepts are:
  • Randomization
  • Replication
  • Control
  • Blocking 

• Practice analyzing an experimental design includes a one-paragraph description of a real-world experiment investigating a possible treatment for elder depression and a graphic organizer for students to indicate the key components of this experiment. Also includes space for students to sketch a design of this experiment. Students can do so digitally using the Insert-Drawing function, or sketch it on paper and upload a photo. 

Why I Created This Lesson

I created these materials to assist my students in making sense of experimental design in AP Statistics. They often enter AP Statistics with some understanding of experiments, often from science classes, but the requirements of design in AP Statistics are quite specific and not always in line with their prior knowledge. I created these graphic organizers and practice materials to help my students master the elements of experimental design that are critical in the AP Statistics curriculum - randomization, replication, control and blocking.

In my AP Statistics curriculum, this lesson is Unit 2, lesson 3. See the following lessons to complete the unit, or purchase the entire unit for a discount price.  

1. Unit 2 Lesson 1: Sampling Strategies
2. Unit 2 Lesson 2: Bias 
3. Unit 2 Lesson 4: Placebos, blinding and control groups
4. Unit 2 Lesson 5: Matched pairs experiments
5. Unit 2 Lesson 6: Observational studies vs experiments
6. Bestseller Experimental Design Project

You may also be interested in:

• Bestseller AP Statistics Five Project Bundle
• AP Statistics Final Project

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