How can you know if the spoon works?

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• Format Lessons
• Language/s English
• Target Audience Further education
• EBM Stage 0 - Why EBM?, 1 - Asking focused questions
• Duration 5-15 mins
• Difficulty Introductory

Key Concepts addressed

• 1-3b Anecdotes are unreliable evidence
• 2-1c Comparison groups should be treated equally
• 2-1d People should not know which treatment they get
• 2-1e Peoples' outcomes should be assessed similarly
• 1-2e Comparisons are needed to identify treatment effects

Details

Short, small group exercise on how to design a fair comparison using the “claim” that a spoon helps retain the bubbles in champagne.

Exercise 1.  Students design a study; then

Exercise 2.  Look at a study someone else has done.

This takes about 20 minutes, is good fun, and introduces some key concepts of trials.