7 Scientific Method
Textbook Chapters (or similar texts)
Videos
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Inquiry-based Activity: Research design
Introduction: In this activity, students will take a research question and put their knowledge of the scientific method and research design to the test by sketching out a research design. Students will confront common problems within social sciences, such as the best way to operationalize an abstract construct such as “productivity.” They will get further experience evaluating and helping to improve the work of their peers, demonstrating the collaborative and ever-evolving nature of science. At the end, students should understand some of the common pitfalls that researchers run into and know how to critique research that they interact with outside of the classroom.
Question to pose to students: Imagine that you are in charge of a group of writers, editors, and ad salespeople at a newspaper. You want to increase their productivity by changing the colors of the walls in their workspace. The walls are currently all white. How would you design an experimental study so that you can see which wall color leads to the most productivity?
Students form a hypothesis: In pairs or small groups, students design a study that they believe would most appropriately answer the question above. While writing it out is fine, students should be encouraged to actually sketch out the design. Components should include operationalizations of the independent variable(s)/levels and dependent variable(s), assignment procedures, population/sample, control variables, and any other pertinent information. What is included will depend in part on how advanced the students are and the readings that have been assigned to them.
Students test their hypotheses: Have student groups exchange their study designs with another group and discuss. How does Group A think Group B’s design could be improved? What could make the study better? What components do they think are missing? Have students return to their original groups and make modifications based on the second groups’ feedback.
Do the students’ hypotheses hold up?: Have students self-“grade” their study designs based on the following questions. Note that these questions are based on past experience with aspects students may miss or struggle with, but others can be added.
-What kind of extraneous variables or confounds might be present in the study? How could you deal with those experimentally?
-Were participants blinded to the purpose of the experiment? Should they have been?
-How did you measure productivity? Does this measure make sense across the different departments, considering they have different jobs?
-What do you think the strengths of your design are?
Come back together as a group and discuss the third question. Together, create a class-wide study that takes into consideration the individual groups’ strengths.
