An Elementary Student Decides to Conduct an Experiment Comparing the Effectiveness

question 13

Multiple Choice

An elementary student decides to conduct an experiment comparing the effectiveness of two commercial soaps as cleaning agents, using each in paired tests of different types of stains and colors of cloth, where the only variable was the soap used. The student will use the judgment of classmates to decide if the stains remain equal or if soap one cleans better than the other in each test run. However, the student makes no prediction of which soap is expected to perform best.

• A) This lacks a hypothesis and is therefore not a scientific test.
• B) This lacks any control group (no-soap treatment) and therefore will provide no meaningful results.
• C) Because this is based on the subjective judgments of students, it is not objective and therefore not scientific.
• D) This is a scientific procedure, although it does lack a stated hypothesis describing an anticipated outcome.
• E) This experimental design has all the components and procedures of the scientific method.

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Definitions:

Description of the Population

Detailed characterization of the individuals or items in a population, including demographics or relevant characteristics.

Central Tendency

A statistical measure that identifies the middle or center of a distribution of data, commonly represented by the mean, median, or mode.

Mean, Median, Mode

Statistical measures where mean is the average of a dataset, median is the middle value, and mode is the most frequently occurring value.

Professionalism

The exhibition of skills, good judgment, and polite behavior expected from a person who is trained to do a job well.