From hypothesis to conclusion: the essential role of statistics in science

Abstract

This study introduces an experiential learning approach in statistical education, leveraging a real-world experimental design to elucidate the scientific method’s role in statistics. Targeting high school and college students, the methodology involves engaging participants in a hands-on experiment, where the primary objective is to ascertain whether two distinct products are differentiable based on a specific characteristic, such as taste. The experiment encompasses several key stages: designing the study, formulating, and testing hypotheses, participating as experimental units, analyzing the gathered data, and interpreting the results to draw statistical inferences. This approach not only facilitates a practical understanding of statistical concepts, but also highlights the importance of experimental design, hypothesis testing, data analysis, and probability interpretation in real-world scenarios. Through this immersive experience, students are expected to gain a deeper appreciation of statistics as a scientific discipline and its applicability in everyday life.

Keywords

• Experiential learning
• statistical education
• designing experiments