1. Your title
page for
process
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3. Introduction To Correlational Studies- Comparing the Correlational Study to
Traditional Scientific Inquiry
 In today’s class, you will begin to learn what a correlational study and also what it is not by
completing 2 group investigations
 Follow each investigation’s procedure carefully and answer any questions
 Then answer the question at the end the handout which compares the 2 activities
Investigation 1 – The Fizz Reaction Activity…
- Do you know happens when you eat Fizz Candy? It reacts
violently in your mouth and eventually disappears!
What is going on?
- Learn about this reaction by mixing baking soda and vinegar
together? They too violently react to create “fizz!” The baking
soda is like the candy and the vinegar is like your mouth’s saliva.
Now consider, how long does it take baking soda to react with vinegar until the baking soda gets all
used up (completely disappears)?
Materials
1. 1 fairly big beaker or container
2. Baking Soda
3. Vinegar
4. Stopwatch
Procedure
1. Write your prediction to the second question above for investigation 1 by completing the sentence
below.
I think the baking soda will react with the vinegar completely in _______________ seconds /
minutes/ hours. (circle one)
2. Fill the beaker with a small amount of vinegar. (Be careful not to waste it all for future use)
3. Add a very small amount of baking soda to the vinegar.
4. Using the stopwatch, time how long it takes for the baking soda to completely disappear in the
water.
5. Was your prediction correct? Explain well what happen below.
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
6. What do you think affects how fast baking soda or fizz candy reacts. Write some ideas below.
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

4. Investigation 2 – The Human Reaction Activity …
- Are you good shooting basketballs or saving goals in soccer? You might have
a good hand reaction speed. Just how good is the human’s hand reaction? ..
- Learn about the human’s reaction by completing a special investigation
involving dropping a ruler between someone’s fingers as instructed below.
- Consider now which member of your group can catch a ruler the fastest?
Materials
1. A ruler
Procedure
1. Write your prediction to the second question above for investigation 1 by completing the sentence
below.
I think ________________ (member’s name) can catch the ruler the fastest at _______________
mm / cm. (circle one)
2. The "0" end of a ruler is held by the dropping person just above the imaginary plane from the top
of the catching person's thumb to the top of his/her forefinger, as indicated in the picture.
3. The catching person should hold his/her thumb and forefinger at a particular distance (e.g., the
width of the ruler). The person holding the ruler should pretend to drop the ruler a few times to
ensure the subject (person attempting to catch the ruler) does not react too quickly and unfairly.
4. Then, the person holding the ruler should drop it without indicating it is going to be dropped.
5. Assuming the subject catches the ruler, the point at which it is caught (e.g., at the top of the
person's finger and thumb) should be recorded by a third person.
6. Was your prediction correct? Explain well what happen below.
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
7. What do you think affects who can catch the ruler the fastest. Write some ideas below.
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
End Question-
 Compare the two investigations you did above. What is similar about them? What is different? Did
you know that one of them is a traditional scientific inquiry and the other one is a correlational
study? Can you tell which one is which and how you know?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

5. _____________________________________________
A correlational study is another big kind of ____________________ in science and also other areas like
math and health. It is also another important way for scientists and others to get explore questions or
even problems and issues and get belivable answers with sound evidence to support them.
What exactly is a correlational study then? A correlational study is actually very similar to an inquiry.
If fact, you will see in time that many of the stages of inquiry are also done in a correlational study such
as gathering background information, making a prediction and hypothesis, analyzing, applying and more.
However, there is one very critical difference between the two:
In an inquiry, scientists commonly create careful predictions and experiments that are _____________
(artifical representations). In doing so, they also often force changes to occur in variables that would not
naturally. For example, scientists may want to know how sunlight can hurt people’s skin. So they may
gather skin cells and then stick them in the sun or even create other similar light using a lamp instead so
that they can do everything inside where are other factors like the air temperature or rain cannot affect
their experimenting. And they purposely look often at one variable that they choose like radiation or
temperature, change it and then see what happens in their experiments to make a conclusion on how
the sun can possibly hurt your skin.
On the other hand, in a correlational study, scientists simply observe variables and other actions –
___________________-. For example, (again) to find out if sunlight can hurt people’s skin, scientists
may interview people who were just in the sun and take measurements directly on the people or even
just ask the people if their skin got damaged and in what way. Then, they will take time to review all of
the data they collect and then try to find some connection between factors (variables) that can help them
to conclude or at least explain how the sun can possibly hurt your skin. This connection that scientists
try to find by studying things naturally is called a ______________________. Hence, the process is a
________________________________.
Also, correlational studies do not have to be about humans. They could also be about observing animals
naturally or other things in nature like volanic eruptions or the movement of the stars in space. It is even
possible to a correlational study on the weather as well.
Types of Correlational Studies:
Although every correlational study can vary, we can group them into 3 basic types in general.
1. ___________________________________
Naturalistic observation involves directly observing and recording the variables (things) of interest in the
natural environment without interference or manipulation by the experimenter. For example, chasing and
watch tornadoes throughout America for a period of 5 years and taking notes (ie. getting data) about
them would be one example.

6. 2. _____________________________
Scientists or others asks questions to other people to gain data in other information. Often in this method,
a random sample of participants have to complete a survey, test, or questionnaire that relates to the
variables (things) of interest. For example, scientists might survey a huge group of smokers to find out
what kind of health problems they have and then use that data to make some conclusion involving a
correlation between their smoking and something else.
3. ______________________________
Archival research normally is done without having to do any experiment or survey. Instead, the scientist
or other person simply collects and reads records of experiments or surveys that were conducted by
other researchers or even historians. For example, scientists (again) want to find out what kind of health
problems smokers have. They can look at medical (doctor) records for hundreds of smokers for the past
20 years. Then, by analyzing the data in the records, they may be able to make some conclusion
involving a correlation between smoking and some other factor.
Correlational Study Process: Basic Steps-
1. _____________________________________________ –
Critical studies often begin with some critical or stressful event the demands a solution. Or sometimes,
scientists or others are just very curious about something and have to find out. Ex. They consider some
dangerous environmental problem.
2. _____________________________________________-
Scientists attempt to figure out what variables may be connected to their problem, topic or issue. This
then helps them to know what data to collect and where.
3. _____________________________________________-
Just like inquiry, scientists next usually try to guess what the connection might be and what they should
find out from doing their study. They also try to explain why they think or believe so.
4. __________________________________________-
Using an appropriate method (ex. an experiment, a survey, reading records), scientists gather a lot of
data to help them test if their prediction and hypothesis is correct.
5. _____________________________________- Once data is collected, scientists often need to
organize the data properly to understand it and then use it to help them test if their prediction and
hypothesis is correct.
6. _______________________________- Once data is organize well, scientists can then compare it to
what they predicted and see if there were really right or not with their prediction. Hopefully, they can
make a conclusion

7. 7. ______________________________ Scientists try to make further connections between their results
and conclusions and other things, people or events in the world.
8. ______________________________- Scientists share their work with others.

8. Correlational Study Type 1: ____________________________________
As was taught to you recently, a correlational study, where you
naturally observe data in order to test and/or prove a hypothesis and
prediction, you are really performing a correlational study.
Further, as you learned before, there are ______________main
types of correlational studies: naturalistic observation, the survey
and the _______________________ correlational study. Today you will
learn more about the last one:
What is an Archival Correlational Study?
Archival studies are normally done without having to do any experiment or survey (at least not at
first) as habit. Instead, the scientist or other person simply collects and reads records of experiments or
surveys that were conducted by other researchers or even historians.
What are the ___________________ of Archival Research?
 The experimenter cannot introduce changes in participant behavior so the results tend to be
more accurate. (The is less chance of rigging, lying or using other inappropriate methods)
 Using you can look at enormous amounts of data. This bigger amount often provides a better
view of trends, relationships, and outcomes. (ie. of correlations)
 This kind of study is often less expensive than other study methods. Researchers can often
access data through free archives or records databases.
What are the _______________________ of Archival Research?
 The researchers have not control over how data was collected. Sometimes, it might be harder to
isolate the variable or factor involved if we cannot control things at all.
 Important data may be missing from the records. Sometimes numbers may missing for certain
dates because no one recorded things accurately.
 The previous research may be unreliable. We cannot know for sure if the people who created the
records did so properly and fairly.
____________________an Archival Correlational Study
In one example, scientists may want to find out what kind of ___________________________
_________________ have. They can look at medical (doctor) records for hundreds of smokers for the
past 20 years. Then, by analyzing the data in the records, they may be able to make some conclusion
involving a correlation between smoking and some other factor. For instance, they might discover that
lung cancer is related to the number of cigarettes that you smoke a day. If you smoke too many, you
have an increased chance of getting cancer in your lungs and even dying.
To give another example, a science teacher or staff technician could review school data for the
last 30 years to find out if there is some connection between the student’s number of ____________
__________________ and the student’s report card ________________. They will most likely find out
that students who are absent more tend to have lower grades in school.