QOD

1. QOD • A researcher wants to examine the effects of cigarette smoking on adolescents. He goes to the local middle school, distributes cigarettes to 13-year-olds who have never smoked, then tracks their health over the course of six weeks. Is the researcher’s experiment ethical? Why or Why not?

2. Answer • No. Research ethics require that the human subjects knowingly volunteer for experiments. 13-year-olds are not old enough to legally volunteer. Usually the legal age starts at 18. Also, there is data that proves cigarettes harm human health. It would be unethical to knowingly cause damage to the health of others.

3. Critical Thinking Exercises Try to come up with an explanatory story for the following curious things. Then come up with one or two of your own sets of curious phenomena and explain them. The explanations do not have to be true.

4. Scenario 1 • 10% of all 20-year-olds are left-handed but only 2% of all 75 year-olds are left handed.

5. Scenario 2 • Occasionally we see a quarter that has been painted red, but we never see other coins painted red; furthermore, they are always painted red (not any other color). Why is this?

6. Scenario 3 • No matter what line I get into at the grocery store or the bank, the other lines move faster.

7. Scenario 4 • Why in America do drains appear turn clockwise but in other countries they appear to turn counterclockwise?

8. Scenario 5 • Why does nearly everything open to the right or tighten when turned to the right?

9. Scenario 6 • There are Big Foot sightings across the northeastern states and Canada, but no actual evidence has ever been found.

10. Scenario 7 • On a hot day, why does a puddle of water seem to appear in front of you then disappear or keep moving as you approach it?

11. Scenario 8 • When you stick a pencil into a cup of water, it looks bent or broken.