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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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 Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 4:09 am Post subject: Hidden causes and bird eating babies |
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I was trying to teach my students about the idea that what seems like the obvious cause might not be the real cause.
My example was a village during winter. A researcher notices birds sit on the roofs of some homes but not others. He knocks on the doors of homes with both bird sitters and no birds. He discovers 100% of the homes with birds on the roof have a baby inside the house. 100% of the homes with no baby have no birds on their roof. Can one conclude birds are helping or causing women to get pregnant?
Clearly the idea is silly so I asked my students to try and figure out the hidden cause. One student Lucy thought she had the solution:
"Teacher it is winter so there is not a lot of foods. The birds know which houses have delicious babies and they want to eat the babies."
*blink*
"Lucy, how would the birds get the babies out of the house to eat them?"
Lucy drew a picture of her cunning plan on the blackboard during the break:
The Crittendon plan it ain't.
This girl rocks all creation.
(The answer is people with babies keep their homes warmer in winter than people without babies. Naturally the birds prefer the homes with the warmer roofs. Points if you know the Crittendon plan reference without google.) |
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Woland
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 6:41 am Post subject: |
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Birds are descended from the dinosaurs; she might be on to something  |
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Yo!Chingo
Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Location: Seoul Korea
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| Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 3:42 pm Post subject: |
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Hey hawks will carry off cats and small dogs. You've got a genius on your hands!  |
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the ghost of electricity
Joined: 26 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 8:18 pm Post subject: |
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| it would be ridiculous to assume there's a 100 percent correllation between houses with babies and higher roof temperatures. |
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jinju
Joined: 22 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 8:33 pm Post subject: |
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| do the birds have to take the babies out of the house to eat them? No. They can just get in the house when the parents are distracted. Then eat the delicious babies. |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 10:17 pm Post subject: |
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| the ghost of electricity wrote: |
| it would be ridiculous to assume there's a 100 percent correlation between houses with babies and higher roof temperatures. |
And it's crazy to assume cats wear hats and travel with little humans called Thing 1 and Thing 2. But you know, we take license to make points and teach lessons. |
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Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
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| Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 12:30 am Post subject: |
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Foreingers exist.
America exists.
Therefore: all foreigners must be american!
There are some problems in korea.
Some Americans are in korea.
Therefore: Our Problems are due to Americans!
 Is that the sort of deduction process you were thinking of? |
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