Education Technology

Mathematics lessons for IB® Diploma Programme

Applications and Interpretation | Statistics and Probability

The t Test

Activity Overview

Students will practice t-test calculations using their TI technology, just as they will be required to do so during examinations.

Objectives

  • Students will discuss scenarios when best to use a t-test.
  • Students will practice writing their null and alternative hypotheses.
  • Students will decide between one and two tailed tests, finding the t-value and p-value with the handheld, and stating their conclusions.

Vocabulary

  • t-test
  • normally distributed
  • variance
  • hypotheses
  • pooled data
  • p-value

About the Lesson

Students will be given several examples of data. They will do the following for each example:

  • Write down the null and alternative hypotheses.
  • State whether the example is a one-tailed or a two-tailed test.
  • Using the handheld, students will find the t-value and p-value for a 2 sample t-test at the 5% significance level.
  • Write down the conclusion to the test.