Alice Waters, owner of the Berkeley, California, restaurant Chez Panisse, has long been an advocate for the use of simple, fresh, organic ingredients in home and restaurant cooking. She has also turned her considerable expertise to school cafeterias. Waters (2006) praised changes in school lunch menus that have expanded nutritious offerings, but she hypothesizes that students are likely to circumvent healthy lunches by avoiding vegetables and smuggling in banned junk food unless they receive accompanying nutrition education and hands-on involvement in their meals. She has spearheaded an Edible Schoolyard program in Berkeley, which involves public school students in the cultivation and preparation of fresh foods, and states that such interactive education is necessary to combat growing levels of childhood obesity. “Nothing less,” Waters writes, “will change their behavior.”
a. In your own words, what is Waters predicting? Citing the confirmation bias, explain why Waters’ program, although intuitively appealing, should not be instituted nationwide without further study.
b. Describe a simple between-groups experiment with a nominal independent variable with two levels and a scale-dependent variable to test Waters’ hypothesis. Specifically identify the independent variable, its levels, and the dependent variable. State how you will operationalize the dependent variable.
c. Which hypothesis test would be used to analyze this experiment? Explain your answer.
d. Conduct step 1 of hypothesis testing.
e. Conduct step 2 of hypothesis testing.
f. State at least one other way you could operationalize the dependent variable.
g. Let’s say, hypothetically, that Waters discounted the need for the research you propose by citing her own data that the Berkeley school in which she instituted the program has lower rates of obesity than other California schools. Describe the flaw in this argument by discussing the importance of random selection and random assignment.
