Part 2 — Answer key

Compare your answers after you have finished Part 1.

1. In basic computer networking, what does the abbreviation "HTTP" stand for when you open a webpage in your browser?
   Hypertext Transfer Protocol
2. If all engineering majors at a college are required to take calculus, then any student who has not taken calculus cannot be an engineering major.
   True
3. A bar chart of 100 college students shows that 60 prefer studying in the library, 25 in dorm rooms, and 15 in cafes. Which conclusion is most strongly supported by this chart?
   Most students prefer to study alone.
4. In a typical animal cell, which structure is primarily responsible for producing most of the cell's usable energy?
   Mitochondrion
5. In a double-blind experiment, the participants know which group they are in, but the researchers do not.
   False
6. A student spends 3 hours in class, 2 hours working, and 1 hour exercising during a 6-hour period. What fraction of that time was spent in class?
   1/2
7. A student wants to search the library database for articles about how cities are adopting renewable energy. Which initial search query is likely to be most effective?
   renewable energy AND cities
8. You are writing a research paper on how social media use affects college students' sleep quality. Which of the following would be the most appropriate sources to rely on? Select all that apply.
   A peer-reviewed psychology journal article on social media and sleep patterns; A national public health agency report on sleep and screen time
9. A lab group needs an average score of 80 across four quizzes to earn full participation credit. Their first three quiz scores are 72, 85, and 78. What is the minimum score they must get on the fourth quiz to reach an 80 average?
   85
10. A biology lab group is designing an experiment to test how a new fertilizer affects plant growth. Which elements are essential for a reasonably well-controlled experiment? Select all that apply.
    Using identical soil and light conditions for all plants; Randomly assigning plants to the fertilizer or control group; Including a group of plants that receives no fertilizer
11. A campus newspaper reports that "students who drink more coffee tend to have higher GPAs," and concludes that drinking coffee raises grades. What is the main flaw in this reasoning?
    It assumes that correlation alone proves a cause-and-effect relationship.
12. If you paraphrase an author's idea in your own words in a college paper, you still need to cite the original source.
    True
13. A student's laptop suddenly starts overheating and the fans are running loudly while only a few browser tabs are open. What is the most reasonable first troubleshooting step?
    Close unnecessary background programs using the task manager
14. You receive an email on your college account claiming you have been "selected" for a paid internship and asking you to click a link to confirm your details. What is the most appropriate first response?
    Open the link on your phone instead of your laptop to be safer
15. Arrange the following steps in the usual order for carrying out a basic quantitative research project in a college course.
    Correct order: Formulate a clear research question → Collect relevant data → Analyze the data using appropriate methods → Draw conclusions based on the analysis
16. You are preparing to run a linear regression on a dataset of weekly study hours and exam scores for 300 college students. Which checks should you perform before trusting the results? Select all that apply.
    Review how the sample of 300 students was selected; Inspect scatterplots to look for outliers or unusual patterns; Check whether the relationship appears roughly linear
17. In a course, the final grade is based on 30% midterm, 20% project, and 50% final exam. A student scores 75 on the midterm and 85 on the project. What minimum score on the final is needed to earn an overall course grade of 80?
    81
18. You conduct a hypothesis test in a statistics class and obtain a p-value of 0.03 when testing a null hypothesis at the 0.05 significance level. How should you interpret this p-value?
    If the null hypothesis were true, you would see results this extreme or more only about 3% of the time.
19. A tech blog claims, "Every top student I know uses this productivity app, so using the app will make you a top student." Which criticisms correctly identify problems with this argument? Select all that apply.
    It ignores other factors, such as study habits, that might explain high performance.; It relies on a small, possibly unrepresentative sample of top students.; It assumes that using the app causes high performance just because they occur together.