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Two fertilizers in a greenhouse

Q1: Formulate questions and collect data · calculator allowed · 10 points

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Name: ______________________   Date: ____________   Two fertilizers in a greenhouse (10 points)

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Two fertilizers in a greenhouse

A horticulture student wants to know whether a new organic fertilizer, B, produces a greater weight of tomatoes than the fertilizer the greenhouse uses now, A. The greenhouse has 40 young tomato plants of the same variety in identical pots: 24 on a sunny bench by the windows and 16 on a shady bench at the back. Over the season, the student will record the total weight of tomatoes, in grams, picked from each plant.

  1. (a) Identify the treatments, the experimental units and the response variable in this experiment. [2 points]

  2. (b) Describe a randomized block design for this experiment, including a method of random assignment that someone else could follow. [3 points]

  3. (c) Explain why blocking by bench is a good idea in this experiment. [2 points]

  4. (d) The plants given fertilizer B produce a statistically significantly greater weight of tomatoes than the plants given fertilizer A. What can the student conclude, and about which plants? Justify your answer. [2 points]

  5. (e) Explain why the student should water every plant with the same amount of water on the same schedule. [1 point]