Re: Experimental/Research Methods First day of class

[Joel Hektner]

One activity that gets students thinking about measurement, reliability, error, etc. is to divide the class into groups of 3 or 4 and give each group a yard stick. Then have them measure something in the room longer than the yard stick (e.g. the chalk board, a window, the floor from one wall to another). Don't give them very specific directions on how to arrive at a result or how precise it should be (rounded to the nearest inch vs. down to 16ths or 32nds). There may be questions that they have to figure out themselves, such as does "chalkboard" include the metal frame surrounding the board, or just the board within the frame?

When each group has had a chance, they should report back to the class what their result was. Results typically form a pretty nice distribution, and may vary in precision. Then you can discuss measurement instruments, their precision, reliability, even validity (did you measure what you were supposed to measure?) You can also ask which result is the "best", and a student will probably suggest that you take the average of all of them. This activity also shows that even with "objective" things like physical measurements, there is a sampling distribution and there is measurement error, and there is a need to operationalize the construct you are measuring (where exactly are the boundaries of it?)


At 07:46 AM 8/12/01 -0500, Patrick O. Dolan wrote:

Nice timing! I was hoping to ask the perennial question of what people do on the first day of class.  I'll be starting a new position in the fall and would love any advice or suggestions y'all may have, particular to Research Methods or in general.

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Joel M. Hektner

Department of Child Development and Family Science

283 EML Hall

North Dakota State University

Fargo, ND 58105

(701) 231-8269