Hypothesis testing of the difference between two means

Date December 2005
Class Statistics class
Teacher Janet Wineland
Notes

Hypothesis testing of the difference between two means.  We learned how to test independent samples and dependent samples.  For independent samples we tested the flight distance of two different types of paper planes and for dependent we have in the past tested to see which hand would hold the most beans.
This year I used the hand-strength test activity for an example of dependent samples. We wrote our hypothesis and our claim and decided to test it at a 5% level of significance.  The students hypothesized that their dominant hand would be stronger than their non-dominant hand. I borrowed a hand-strength tester from a physical therapy office. They loved testing their strength!  The two different activities made it easier for the students to understand the difference between independent and dependent samples. 
Since it is the end of the semester, I used the worksheet as a great review of all the different statistics we have learned this year.  They did the stem plot, found the mean, median and mode and made the box-plots to compare the data.  I divided them into groups and had them do other statistical methods that they have learned this year. They added to the activity in the handout by also doing probabilities, confidence intervals and scatter plots including the linear regression line comparing the two hands.  What started as a simple activity for a statistics class turned out to be a great semester review.  I think it helped tie a lot of concepts together for the class.
I would definitely use this activity again and probably in a similar way.