Activity Overview
In this activity, students will look at a problem situation that involves categorical data and will determine which is the appropriate chi-square test to use: the chi-squared goodness of fit or the chi-squared two-way test.
Objectives
- Students will recognize that chi-squared tests are for counts of categorical data.
- Students will identify the appropriate chi-squared test to use for a given situation: Goodness of Fit Test, Test of Independence, or Test of Homogeneity.
- Students will learn how to calculate the degrees of freedom for each type of chi-squared test.
- Students will interpret the results of a chi-square test.
- Students will reason abstractly and quantitatively.
Vocabulary
- goodness-of-fit
- categorical data
- observed counts
- p-value
- degrees of freedom
- test of homogeneity
- expected counts
- test of independence
About the Lesson
This lesson involves investigating chi-squared tests and distributions. Students will compare different scenarios and determine which chi-square test is appropriate. They will look at chi-square test results and make the correct decision to reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis and write their conclusions in context.