Activity #1 (Group or Individual)

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.

Activity #2 (Group or Individual)

Using data from Class Activity #1, 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 t-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 8. Ask students to discuss whether or not the results make intuitive sense. Why or why not?

Activity #3 (Group)

Have students attempt to replicate their results from Class Activity #2 by hand. Each small group member should be responsible for completing one section of conducting a t-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 #4 (Group or Individual)

At the beginning of the unit, give the students a pre-test for the testing hypotheses unit. When you complete the lecture for the testing hypotheses unit, have the students complete a post-test. Have the students make a hypothesis about what they will find out about the pre-test and post-test scores. Collate and de-identify the scores. Have the class run a dependent-samples t-test on the data. Discuss the process as a class.