Chopsticks Experiment

1). The Block Five AP Stats class at Silver Creek High School conducted an experiment with the intent to answer the question, “Who is Better at Using Chopsticks: Boys or Girls?”. To begin the study, everyone in the class was asked to write their name on a piece of paper. The papers were then collected and separated by gender. Five boys and five girls were then randomly selected by drawing the papers with names from a hat. The names were stirred and mixed in the hat prior to selection. The ten test subjects were given a pair of chopsticks that were all similar in length and diameter. Each participant was also given a Dixie cup which was filled with five M&Ms and five raisins. It was then explained to the subjects that they must start the experiment …show more content…
Boxplots were chosen to display the data since the categorical variable of boys versus girls was measured during this experiment. Attached are the boxplots of the data between the boys and the girls relating to their time in the Chopsticks Experiment. From the results of the data, it would appear that the girls are the superior gender when using chopsticks. Overall, the female median time (55.41) was 22.83 seconds faster than the male’s (78.24). The girls also had a lower minimum time value than the boys, 33.46 for the fastest female and 48.5 for the fastest male. However, it can be argued that the males were more consistent in their times than the females. The boys had an Interquartile Range of 84.8 while the girls had and an IQR of 97.98. This means that the middle 50% of the boys’ times were all closer together than the females. Also, the males had a lower maximum time than the females, 323.98 for the slowest male and 339 for the slowest female. The data for both the males and the females had an outlier above the upper fence (Q3+1.5(IQR)), 339.00 for the girls and 323.98 for the boys. These outliers cause the median time for both the boys and the girls to rise. Also, the range for the boy’s data was less than that of the girls data. 275.48 for the boys and 305.54 for the girls. This means that the times for the males were all closer together than the girls times. Nevertheless, this experiment was designed to see which gender was better at using chopsticks. This …show more content…
If I were to do this experiment again, I would conduct a second test with random assignment among the subjects. This would change the nature of this study from a sample survey into a real experiment with the possibility to infer cause and effect relationships. In order to create different treatments for participants, I would randomly select more males and females. This time, I would randomly choose them from a larger population to help ensure that the sample population is representative of the general population. I would then randomly assign each group of boys and girls to two different sub-groups (Group Girls A, Group Girls B, Group Boys C, and Group Boys D). Groups A and C would only pick up M&M’s while Groups B and D would only pick up raisins. Times would then be recorded and inferences would be made from the data. Also, I might want to add another object to pick up with chopsticks (such as dice or peanuts). This would add two more treatment groups. Lastly, I would want to block the participants so that an equal number of left-handed people were in each treatment group. This would help make the experimental results more representative of the general population. I would also want to survey the participants to understand and evaluate their past experience with using chopsticks. It might be beneficial to block the experienced chopsticks users equally among the