Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My Science fair project is Does Crossed/Uncrossed Hand/Eye Dominance Affect Basketball shooting percentage? My questions are: Is the Control Group the participants who are uncrossed hand eye dominant? (They are about 70% of the population) Is the Experimental Group the participants who are crossed hand eye dominant? (They are about 30% of the population) Is the Experimental factor handednesss and eye dominancy? Please help.

Hello,
I would say your control in this experiment is the shooting abilities of all the participants without regard to crossed or uncrossed dominance. This allows you to see the average percentage of baskets any group of people is likely to make. Both the crossed and uncrossed hand/eye dominance groups represent experimental factors, because it seems that you want to see the effect that both situations have on shooting ability. An experimental factor or independent variable affects the results of the experiment, the control group provides results unaffected by the experimental factor.
Good luck with your project!

Thank you so much for the explanation. So the Control Group is the shooting abilities of all participants. The Experimental Factor represents crossed/uncrossed hand eye dominance groups. In this experiment would we not have an Experimental Group because are Control Group covers all participants shooting abilities? Just need assurance.

I would say that the experimental groups are the group with uncrossed hand/eye dominance and the group with crossed hand/eye dominance. So, the control group would be everyone, and your two experimental groups would be people with uncrossed dominance and people with crossed dominance. The control and experimental groups overlap of course, but you are testing the experimental factor once you divide the people according to crossed or uncrossed dominance.

Thank you for your quick responses. You made it so easy to understand when you said the control group and experimental would over lap and both groups will be in the experimental group. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge. Knowledge is powerful, but shared knowledge is more powerful. Have an awesome day.