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The p and the Peas: An Intuitive ModelingApproach to Hypothesis Testing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2011

C. Neuhauser  and
E. Stanley
C. Neuhauser*
Affiliation:
Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology University of Minnesota Rochester, Rochester MN
E. Stanley
Affiliation:
BioQUEST, Biology Department, Beloit College, Beloit WI
*
⋆ Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

We propose a novel approach to introducing hypothesis testing into the biologycurriculum. Instead of telling students the hypothesis and what kind of data to collectfollowed by a rigid recipe of testing the hypothesis with a given test statistic, we askstudents to develop a hypothesis and a mathematical model that describes the nullhypothesis. Simulation of the model under the null hypothesis allows students to comparetheir experimental data to what they would expect under the null hypothesis, thus leadingto a much more intuitive understanding of hypothesis testing. This approach has beentested both in the classroom and in faculty workshops, and we provide some suggestions forimplementations based on our experiences.

Keywords

data analysishypothesis testingmathematical and biological reasoningmodel buildingmodel revisionnormal distributionpeasprobabilitysamplingseed development
Type
Research Article
Information
Mathematical Modelling of Natural Phenomena , Volume 6 , Issue 6: Biomathematics Education , 2011 , pp. 76 - 95
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, 2011

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