Activity #1 (Group or Individual)

The below activity was also given in Chapter 8, Activity #1. Students may redo the activity or use the data from Chapter 9’s activity to complete Activity #2.

Many colleges and universities keep detailed records about their respective student populations such as entrance statistics, majors, and minors. Ask students to locate this type of information for your university. Ask students to focus on obtaining information by group (e.g., sex, race/ethnicity, and class rank). For example, the University of Central Missouri publishes a Fact Book every year with data on various student groups of interest (https://www.ucmo.edu/ir/documents/factbook.pdf). Some colleges and universities house this type of data online, while for others you may have to contact someone in the office that does the data analyses for the institution. Once students have located the data for your university, ask them to import the data into SPSS. Ask each group to describe these data using measures of central tendency and variability.

Using this data, have students conduct a t-test using SPSS to determine whether or not there is a significant difference between two groups of interest on a dependent variable of interest (e.g., SAT scores). Make sure students organize the data in such a way that they use two variables in their SPSS spreadsheet. The first variable will be the dependent variable (e.g., SAT scores). The second variable will be the independent variable, which is the grouping variable used (i.e., these are the groups that you will be comparing with the F-test). For example, students may code males with “0” and females with a “1.” This will allow SPSS to run the analysis. Have students identify the relevant statistics in the output as they were discussed in Chapter 11. Ask students to discuss whether or not the results make intuitive sense. Why or why not?

Activity #2 (Group)

Have students attempt to replicate their results from Class Activity #1 by hand. Each small group member should be responsible for completing one section of conducting an F-test. Once each group member has completed their work, have them come together and assemble the pieces. Do their results line up with the SPSS output? Ask students to locate any mistakes in their work and retry.

Activity #3 (Group or Individual)

Provide students with 3–5 ANOVA tables produced from SPSS. Delete some of the statistics presented in the tables and have students fill in the blank. This activity provides students with exposure to SPSS tables and reiterates key statistics needed for ANOVA.

Activity #4 (Group or Individual)

Have students locate scholarly journals related to their field and interests that utilize an ANOVA in their analyses. Have the students read the results and take notes on what parts they understood and which parts they had trouble understanding. Scaffold your students learning and then have them present the following information to the class:

1. Identify the dependent variable.
2. Identify the number of independent variables.
3. Identify the levels of the independent variable(s).
4. Write the results how the author(s) wrote the results. What do the different parts of the results mean?