Step 5. Formulate conclusions
(q) Write a paragraph recapping to your fellow students what you have learned about sleep times last night for students at your school. Be sure to discuss the following:
- Describe the sample: The results obtained in the sample (from a and b),
- Significance: Your conclusion regarding the population mean of 8 hours, and
- Generalizability: Describe the population you are willing to generalize to from this sample
- Was this a simple random sample of all students at your school? (What would that involve?)
- How do you think students in this class might tend to differ from the overall student population at your school on this issue?
- Is there a different population you would be willing to generalize these results to? Explain.
- Identify at least one potential nonsampling error in these data.
Step 6: Look back and ahead
(r) Did anything about the design and conclusions of this study concern you? (See Word file for possible issues to critique.)
(s) What should the researchers' next steps be to fix the limitations or build on this knowledge?
Final Note: The University of Michigan website (http://www.uhs.umich.edu/sleep) also has tips for improving your sleep and minimizing the effect of sleep loss on grades!
