This week, we will do part of Exploration 4.2 Have a Nice Trip (1-14) (PDF Download PDF) to get a sense of how random assignment can make roughly similar groups. Then we’ll work through part of Exploration 6.2: Lingering Effects of Sleep Deprivation (1-15) (PDF Download PDF) to see how random assignment allows us to quantify the difference we would expect if there really was no effect, whereas without random assignment the effect could be due to confounding variables.

Be sure to save your responses, then upload them to your Discussion Board Post. In the textbox of your discussion board post, summarize: 

• Using your work from Exploration 4.2, describe how often random assignment resulted in groups that were roughly similar to each other in regard to different characteristics. (minimum 4 sentences)
• Referring to Exploration 6.2, when comparing the means of two different groups, how do we simulate the chance model? Why do we do it that way? (minimum 3 sentences)