Assessing an intervention: A quick exercise for your classes, specialized to your own university.

Here is a quick RM review I created for my Psych Stats students.

We were preparing for the first exam, which covered the very basics of research methodology, including IVs and DVs. We also talk about data visualizations and how they can be used to quickly convey information.

California is dealing with an energy crisis and a heatwave.

California tried a relatively inexpensive intervention to reduce the likelihood of overwhelming the energy grid: Sending out text messages during extremely high energy usage. See:

A screenshot of a smart phone. The text message on the screen is from the electric utility company in California. It is asking the people of California to reduce their energy usage due to an immediate emergency.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-07/a-text-alert-may-have-saved-california-from-power-blackouts

And what happened? People reduced their electric usage.

A line graph from Bloomberg. It illustrates how electricity usage in CA declined after the text message was sent.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-07/a-text-alert-may-have-saved-california-from-power-blackouts

For the class review, I asked my students to think of the emergency alerts they receive from their university via our campus safety app. I challenged them to think of a campus concern or problem that has the potential to be alleviated by text message alerts. They needed to list the IV (campus issue) and DV (whatever outcome they could measure), their experimental and control groups, and their control and experimental groups.

The students were able to generate all sorts of ideas: Reminders to not open the doors to residence halls to strangers, reminders to report suspicious behaviors, add/drop dates for classes, etc.

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