2. • Population- Local kids of Horsham (can also be a likely
conclusion of most American kids)
• Experimental units- 90 kids ages 3-12 from Simmons
Elementary
• Explanatory Variable- Amount of sugar given to kids
(categorical)
• Response Variable- Hyperness of kids (not hyper, somewhat
hyper, very hyper)(categorical)
• Treatments- high sugar chocolate bar, medium sugar candy
bar, no sugar candy bar
• Measuring and comparing: the kid’s hyperactivity will be
measured categorically and compared to their previous
hyperactivity
3. Control Group
the group of kids who are given chocolate with
no sugar. This serves as a model to compare the
hyperactivity of kids who did not receive sugar
to the hyperactivity of the kids who did have
sugar. It is possible that the kids would only
become hyper because they were excited about
receiving chocolate, so the placebo (control
group in this experiment) is a standard to see
how hyper the kids would most likely be without
sugar.
4. Randomization
in this experiment randomization is used to
ensure that kids with different personalities,
reactions to sugar, and other
factors/characteristic are included in the
experiment and are administered different
treatments. By getting a simple random sample
and by running a completely randomized
experiment, bias is prevented and the
experiment becomes more accurate.
5. Replication
this experiment is tested on 90 children to
ensure that the results are accurate. If each
treatment was only given to one child, then the
results may only apply to those kids. However,
by studying many kids, the experiment better
represents the area’s population of kids and
their reactions to sugar.
6. Blocking
blocking will be used in this experiment to
evaluate boys and girls separately. Boys and girls
may have different reactions to consuming
candy and sugar, which may be an important
factor to note in this experiment. By blocking,
the resulting responses are much easier to
evaluate and compare.
7. Double
both the children who receive the treatments and
Blinding
those who are administering the treatments and
evaluating the results will not know which kind of
treatment is being given. The kids will not know the
treatment they get in order to make sure they are not
just believing they are more hyper, or that the kids get
more excited because they love candy, which could
make the results bias. The evaluators will not know the
kids’ treatments either because they may be more
likely to categorize the kids based on their treatments
and not their levels of hyperactivity.
8. Screening
Before choosing which children can be used in the study,
we must screen them all. This is done so we can eliminate
kids with any type of conditions different from the majority
of kids, such as ADHD problems or diabetes. By eliminating
these kids, we aim at finding the overall results of children in
the population, not just a select few which could throw off
results. In this screening we will eliminate kids with ADHD,
diabetes, and other existing heart problems from the
experiment in order to reduce the effect of any lurking
variables that may occur.
9. Concerns
Doing this will not only eliminate bias since some kids
are affected differently, but it will also eliminate some
concerns. One concern would have been that we would
not want a kid with ADHD getting overly excited to an
unhealthy degree. Also, we would not want the kids
with diabetes to have trouble balancing their blood
sugar content. Other concerns just may be kids getting
overly excited and accidentally injuring themselves in
the process
10. EXPERIMENT- Pre-evalutation
Before the kids eat the candy, have them all play
in a room together for an hour. Evaluators will
sit in the room and categorize the hyperactivity
and behavior of each of the kids and sort them
into several categories: not hyper, somewhat
hyper, moderately hyper, very hyper.
11. EXPERIMENT- random assignment
First, get 90 volunteers from Simmons Elementary between the
ages of 3 and 12 years old. Block them into 45 boys and 45 girls.
Give each boy and each girl a number between 1 and 45 by
alphabetical order. Put the numbers in two hats (1 boy, 1 girl)
and shake and shuffle the numbers. For the boys, pick the first
15 numbers and give them the high sugar treatment. Pick 15
more and they will receive the medium sugar treatment. Pick
the last 15 to receive the no sugar treatment (the placebo). Do
the same for the girls hat.
12. EXPERIMENT- running experiment
Give each of the kids the candy that corresponds
with their treatment. After 10 minutes (allowing
time for the sugar to kick in) place the kids back
in a room together and reevaluate their
hyperactivity levels using the same scale and
same evaluators.
13. EXPERIMENT- evaluating results
Compare the hyperactivity levels from before
the kids ate the candy and after. Then, reveal
which treatments were given to each child and
make observations about the connections and
relationships between the candy and the
hyperactivity level.
14. Conclusions
• One could conclude that kids like the ones being
experimented on (perhaps children 3-12 of America) are
either affected, causing them to be more hyper, or not
affected by sugar if there seems to be no difference in
hyperactivity
• However, whatever conclusion we get we must not
conclude the same thing for all children (nor all children of
the world) because although all children may be similar,
factors such as living space and conditions and other such
factors could affect the results
