Assignment- Good habits vs. bad habits

Search online for an article or video that goes into detail about the scientific evidence for or against one of your potentially controversial bad or good habits. Some examples of potential controversial good/bad habits include (but certainly are not limited to): tanning, eating bacon and other cured meats, vegetarian diet, vegan diet, Atkins diet, drinking soda, using artificial sweeteners, skiing without a helmet, participating in endurance sports, pulling all-nighters before exams, binge drinking, taking herbal supplements, biting your nails, getting pedicures in a salon, wearing deodorants with aluminum,...

If you choose the same habit as somebody else in your class, make sure your arguments and article are different.If you have trouble finding a research article, the Purdue research librarians are excellent resources.One of the things you will need to discuss about your article is what type of article it is. Here are your choices:

• A primary source research journal article is written by the researchers who conducted the study. Examples of research journals are Science, Nature, the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science (PNAS), and Journal of the American Medical Association, but there are many others. Primary source research articles always begin with an abstract that summarizes the research in that article.*If you do an internet search for your topic, you will find lots of abstracts to read.

• A review article is published in a research journal summarizing several other research projects, hopefully with details about those other studies.

• A secondary source is a summary article written by a science reporter but not by the researchers. Secondary sources can be easier to read and give you a good overview of the research, but you generally need to find a primary source to get enough details to understand what the researchers did. MSNBC, WebMD, and Newsweek are examples of secondary sources.

These are the questions that you must discuss in your Mixable post (40 points total):

1. "Tag" your post with the habit name. For example, "tanning" or "pedicures in salon."

2. Begin with a sentence about your good or bad habit and why you have this habit.

3. Include a link to the appropriate, unique article that you found. If your article is easily accessible on the internet, include the link to the whole article. If you used a journal article through the Purdue library, then give the link to the abstract and state that you had to get the full article from the Purdue library. (Be prepared to produce the whole article upon request from the instructor.)

4. Is your article a primary source, review article, or secondary source? How do you know?

5. Summarize the research in a few sentences, as if you are a science reporter for the Exponent. Be sure to include all important details about the research, including the conclusion.

6. Identify whether the research project in your article is an observational study or an experiment and how you know this. If there are treatment groups, specify what they are.

7. Who/what was the sample used? Give as many details as possible. How was the sample collected (voluntary response, convenience sample, simple random sample stratified random sample, or something else)?

8. Did the researchers show causation instead of just association? Why or why not? Use what we know from STAT 113 about what is required to show causation.

9. State at least one extension of the research into your habit that you would like to see to give you a better explanation of why your habit is good or bad.

10. After reading this article, do you plan on continuing with your habit? Give specific reasons why or why not.