Provide an appropriate response.Some adults said they could "tell the difference between the namebrand chocolate chips and the generic brand chocolate chips." How might students design a study to test whether the adults could tell the difference between types of chocolate chips if the students were (a) elementary-grade students? (b)middle-grade students?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary. A major decision is what types of chocolate chips could be used. Does this mean brand name milk chocolate chips versus generic milk chocolate chips, either brand name or generic milk chocolate chips versus either brand name or generic semi-sweet chocolate chips, and so on? All students might find it necessary to blindfold any adults in the test so that they cannot see the chocolate chips and tell a difference that way. An additional question is what is an adult? Middle-school students might want to try and choose adults at random for the test and would have to consider how to randomize them. (a) Elementary students might blindfold the adults and simply hand them two different types to see if the adults could tell the difference. (b) Middle-grade students might place a few chocolate chips in a plastic cup, use a series of
taste tests to eliminate random guessing, and so on.